Unilever blijft investeren in Indonesië om groeicapaciteit te vergroten

UNILEVER CONTINUES TO INVEST IN INDONESIA TO INCREASE CAPACITY FOR GROWTH

Unilever expands state-of-the art Personal Care and Ice Cream facilities to drive growth

Unilever yesterday unveiled expansion to production facilities in Indonesia that will help drive sustainable growth for the company in the fast-growing developing and emerging markets.

The company has invested about €90 million to build a new, state-of-the-art personal care factory and to expand existing ice cream and personal care factories to increase Unilever’s capacity for growth and service increasing demand for beauty products and ice cream in Indonesia and in other parts of Asia and Africa.  These developments complement the additional capacity already being built in the Home Care and Foods categories in Indonesia this year and will better enable Unilever to deliver bigger and better innovation more quickly to consumers.

Pier Luigi Sigismondi, Unilever’s Chief Supply Chain Officer said, ‘Unilever, as the emerging markets consumer goods company has set itself an ambitious goal – to double the size of our business whilst reducing our environmental impact. These new facilities will help us to continue to grow in Indonesia, an important market in which we have strong category positions across our portfolio, as we do across South East Asia.

“These markets contribute significantly to the 54% that Unilever currently generates from emerging markets, a figure we expect to rise substantially over the next ten years.  We are excited by the enormous possibilities these markets offer and more investments will undoubtedly follow.”

The new facilities were officially unveiled at an opening ceremony by Bapak Hatta Rajasa, Co-ordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, in front of several distinguished guests and the Unilever Board.

This investment is part of a €550 million, three-year investment programme in Indonesia to enable Unilever to leverage its leading position in developing and emerging markets by enabling sustainable and profitable growth.

Maurits Lalisang, Chairman Unilever Indonesia added, “With almost 80 years of Unilever history in Indonesia, we have demonstrated long-term commitment to its growth and prosperity so far. Our continuing and significant investment in Indonesia shows that we are equally committed to Indonesia’s future growth, economic and environmental development.”

ABOUT UNILEVER

Unilever works to create a better future every day.  We help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others.

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods with strong operations in more than 100 countries and sales in 180. Consumers buy 170bn Unilever packs around the world every year, and our products are used over two billion times a day.

Our portfolio includes some of the world’s best known and most loved brands including twelve €1 billion brands, and global leadership in many categories in which we operate.  The portfolio features iconic brands such as: Knorr, Hellmann’s, Lipton, Dove, Vaseline, Persil, Cif, Marmite and Pot Noodle.

We have around 167,000 employees in over 100 countries, and generated annual sales of €44.3 billion in 2010.  For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit www.unilever.com

Unilever is Food Industry Leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Indexes for the 12th year running. We are included in the FTSE4Good Index Series and attained a top environmental score of 5, leading to inclusion in the FTSE4Good Environmental Leaders Europe 40 Index. We are also ranked 7th in the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World, a list compiled by Corporate Knights Magazine.  We achieved Platinum Plus standard in the UK’s Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index 2009, and were named Company of the Year in 2010.

Safe Harbour

This announcement may contain forward-looking statements, including ‘forward-looking statements’ within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as ‘expects’, ‘anticipates’, ‘intends’, ‘believes’ or the negative of these terms and other similar expressions of future performance or results, and their negatives, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and assumptions regarding anticipated developments and other factors affecting the Group. They are not historical facts, nor are they guarantees of future performance. Because these forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, there are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, including, among others, competitive pricing and activities, economic slowdown, industry consolidation, access to credit markets, recruitment levels, reputational risks, commodity prices, continued availability of raw materials, prioritisation of projects, consumption levels, costs, the ability to maintain and manage key customer relationships and supply chain sources, consumer demands, currency values, interest rates, the ability to integrate acquisitions and complete planned divestitures, the ability to complete planned restructuring activities, physical risks, environmental risks, the ability to manage regulatory, tax and legal matters and resolve pending matters within current estimates, legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments, political, economic and social conditions in the geographic markets where the Group operates and new or changed priorities of the Boards. Further details of potential risks and uncertainties affecting the Group are described in the Group’s filings with the London Stock Exchange, Euronext Amsterdam and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Group’s Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended 31 December 2010. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this document. Except as required by any applicable law or regulation, the Group expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the Group’s expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.