How Unilever Started Grew and Became a 70 Billion Company

In 1927 Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie and British soapmaker Lever Brothers merged their companies to form Unilever It is a British-Dutch Fast-Moving Consumer Goods FMCG company and one of Europe's most valuable enterprises as well as the world s greatest consumer goods company as measured by the revenue in 2012 Unilever started as a merger between Margarine Unie and Lever Brothers The Margarine Unie was a merger between two rival Dutch margarine factories the Jurgens and Van Der Bergh Both companies were founded in 1872 and 1888 respectively In 1927 they merged for profit-sharing and gaining a larger percentage of market share in the margarine market In 1885 brothers William Hesketh Lever and James Darcy Lever founded the Lever Brothers Their company manufactured the first mass-produced packaged laundry soap Sunlight Soap Lever Brothers innovative soap-making process made cleanliness and hygiene affordable for both the middle and lower-class Though different in products the Margarine Unie and Lever Brothers shared a common ingredient animal fat As a result their 1929 merger became more of a joint venture than an actual merger The name Unilever was coined from a combination of Uni from Margarine Unie and Lever from Lever Brothers In respect to this fact Unilever was registered as a dual-listed company and shared two headquarters Unilever PLC located at London United Kingdom and Unilever N V at Rotterdam Netherlands

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