LONDON EVENING STANDARD: CITYSPY: TROUBLE ahead for Unilever.: “The City has had enough of the convoluted structure that served the likes of the food brands giant and Shell for years, and is champing at the bit for a wholesale rethink. Shell is under the knife and Unilever is next. The catalyst in Shell's case was the reserves writedown scandal.” (ShellNews.net) Posted 22 Jan 05

The City has had enough of the convoluted structure that served the likes of the food brands giant and Shell for years, and is champing at the bit for a wholesale rethink.

Shell is under the knife and Unilever is next. The catalyst in Shell's case was the reserves writedown scandal. In Unilever's, it is the rise of own-label goods in supermarkets, the impact of the Atkins diet on its Slim-Fast purchase and the departure of the popular and respected Niall FitzGerald.

Now FitzGerald has gone and the results continue to suffer, there is little compunction at turning up the pressure. Institutional investors have had enough. Sales and profits fell last year and the shares have dropped 15% in the past two years. FitzGerald's famous Path to Growth programme is cruelly renamed Road to Nowhere in Fortune magazine. The date for the diary is 13 February when the joint chairmen, Antony Burgmans and Patrick Cescau, present latest results and offer targets for the next five years.

Their defence of the present, shared arrangement already has a lame feel to it. "Is the problem of two chairmen or one going to solve our execution problem?" asks Cescau in Fortune. "'No' is the answer." But is there sign of a split at the top? They aren't singing the same song, with Burgmans apparently more resigned to change: "We realise nothing is forever. If we think it is in the interests of the company, we will certainly do it." Come next month and they may not have a choice.

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