Unilever exits from Russia; sells its Russian business to local manufacturer

Unilever has sold its Russian business to a local manufacturer, Arnest Group, Reuters reported. The sale includes all of the Unilever's business and four factories in Russia. In addition to this, it has also sold the business in Belarus.

As per the report, Arnest Group manufactures perfumes, cosmetics and household products. Arnest had acquired Ball Corp's beverage packaging division for $530 million, as well as the Russian operations of Swedish cosmetics firm Oriflame in 2022.

Notedly, the company has yet not disclosed the selling value of the business. Unilever is expected to publish its third quarter results on October 24, suggests the report.

Last month, the RBC business daily reported that Unilever had obtained approval from the Russian government to sell assets estimated to be worth approximately 35-40 billion roubles ($359.5-$410.9 million).

In his first year as CEO, Hein Schumacher has initiated plans to divest the ice cream division, implement layoffs affecting up to 7,500 employees and concentrate efforts on 30 core brands to address years of underperformance at Unilever. "This work has been very complex, and has involved separating IT platforms and supply chains, as well as migrating brands to Cyrillic," Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher stated.