Unilever has completed its sale of Unilever Russia to a local manufacturer of personal care and household goods.
Hein Schumacher, CEO of Unilever, said in a statement: “Unilever has today completed the sale of its Russian subsidiary to Arnest Group, a Russian manufacturer of perfume, cosmetics and household products.
“The sale includes all of Unilever’s business in Russia and its four factories in the country.
“Our business in Belarus is also included in the sale.”
Unilever’s four production clusters in Russia are located in St Petersburg, Tula, Omsk and Yekaterinburg.
Last August, Schumacher pledged to reexamine the Dove owner’s Russia presence following criticism over its operations in the country throughout the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Unilever was named an ‘international sponsor of war’ in 2023 by the Ukrainian government.
And Schumacher’s promise – contained in a letter seen by The Telegraph – was in response to a Ukrainian war veteran who wrote to the CEO to convince Unilever to cease its presence in Russia.
In Unilever’s latest statement, Schumacher detailed the year-long process.
“Over the past year, we have been carefully preparing the Unilever Russia business for a potential sale,” he said.
“This work has been very complex, and has involved separating IT platforms and supply chains, as well as migrating brands to cyrillic.
“The completion of the sale ends Unilever Russia’s presence in the country.”
While terms of the deal were not disclosed, Russian publication RBC – which revealed in September that a deal was in the pipeline – valued Unilever’s Russian business between US$394m and $449m, citing a source familiar with the matter.
The Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol-headquartered Arnest Group is owned by Russian industrialist Alexei Sagal.
Since Moscow’s invasion, it has acquired the local assets of Swedish cosmetics group Oriflame, US can maker Ball Corp and Dutch brewer Heineken.
