Unilever Spreads Division's CEO Quits

LONDON—The chief executive of Unilever PLC's underperforming spreads division has resigned, after just one year in the role.

Sean Gogarty stepped down last month to pursue other opportunities, according to the contents of an internal memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. He has been replaced by Nicolas Liabeuf, formerly senior vice president of marketing operations.

Unilever—which is far and away the world's largest margarine maker—in December 2014 moved to hive off its margarine business into a stand-alone division after years of weak sales, naming Mr. Gogarty to be the unit's head and sparking speculation the business would be sold.

Unilever has in the past insisted that it won't sell spreads, which gives it a consistent cash flow and makes up roughly 5% of company sales but about 8% of profit according to Socié té Gé né rale.

But margarine has looked increasingly out of step with the rest of Unilever's portfolio as the company has made a series of high-end acquisitions in personal care and divested several bits of its food portfolio. The spread has fallen out of favor as consumers eat less bread and, when they do, have embraced butter as a more wholesome, natural option.

Unilever's so-called Baking, Cooking and Spreads division—which doesn't include emerging markets spreads—became fully operational in July of last year and chief financial officer Graeme Pithketly has said investors should judge its performance through 2016. Unilever has pushed into baking ingredients, liquid margarine for cooking and blends of vegetable oil and butter and is working to cut the unit's costs.

The Anglo Dutch company reports fiscal 2015 results on Tuesday morning.

Write to Saabira Chaudhuri at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 19, 2016 02:25 ET (07:25 GMT)

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