London/Rotterdam/Zurich – Barry Callebaut AG, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa and chocolate products and Unilever, one of the world’s foremost consumer goods companies and global market leader in ice cream, announced today the signing of a new long-term global partnership agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Barry Callebaut will become Unilever’s strategic global supplier and innovation partner of choice for its cocoa and chocolate needs.
This new global supply agreement builds on the existing long-standing working relationship and will nearly double Barry Callebaut’s current volumes with Unilever. Ultimately Barry Callebaut will provide 70% of Unilever’s global cocoa and chocolate products. This will be achieved under a wide-ranging joint business development plan involving close co-operation across the areas of innovation, sustainable sourcing, capacity expansion and value improvement.
Kevin Havelock, President of Unilever’s Refreshment Category, said: “Our Ice Cream category has a significant role to play in Unilever’s sustainable growth model to deliver our ambition of doubling the size of our business whilst reducing our environmental impact. Our leadership position has been built on great taste, innovation and increasingly sustainable ingredients. We need partners like Barry Callebaut to help us extend this position and achieve our overall aim.”
As a result of the agreement, Barry Callebaut will invest approximately CHF 22 million (EUR 18 million / USD 24 million) in its worldwide factory network in order to prepare the capacity required to fulfill the long-term partnership agreement. The additional volumes have a ramp-up period of 12 months, starting immediately.
Juergen Steinemann, CEO of Barry Callebaut, said: “We are honored that we can announce this long-term partnership with Unilever today and be part of their “Partner to Win” strategy. This agreement is based on a successful long-standing collaboration between our two companies. Once again, it confirms that by living our four strategic pillars1 we can accomplish and deliver on the requirements of our customers.”
Barry Callebaut has already been an active partner in developing one of Unilever’s most successful ice cream brands, Magnum®, including supporting the launch of this iconic brand across various regions in the last year.
Barry Callebaut has also been working closely with Unilever to meet its sustainable cocoa sourcing commitments.
The parties agreed not to disclose any further terms of the agreement.
1 Expansion, Cost Leadership, Innovation and Sustainable Cocoa.
About Unilever (www.unilever.com):
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.
In November 2010, we launched the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan aiming to halve our overall environmental footprint. Unilever is Food Industry Leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Indexes for the 13th 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.
Barry Callebaut (www.barry-callebaut.com):
With annual sales of about CHF 4.6 billion (EUR 3.6 billion/USD 5.0 billion) for fiscal year 2010/11, Zurich-based Barry Callebaut is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa and chocolate – from the cocoa bean to the finished chocolate product. Barry Callebaut is present in 27 countries, operates around 40 production facilities and employs a diverse and dedicated workforce of about 6,000 people. Barry Callebaut serves the entire food industry focusing on industrial food manufacturers, artisans and professional users of chocolate (such as chocolatiers, pastry chefs or bakers), the latter with its two global brands Callebaut® and Cacao Barry®. Barry Callebaut is the global leader in cocoa and chocolate innovations and provides a comprehensive range of services in the fields of product development, processing, training and marketing. Cost leadership is another important reason why global as well as local food manufacturers work together with Barry Callebaut. Through its broad range of sustainability initiatives and research activities, the company works with farmers, farmer organizations and other partners to help ensure future supplies of cocoa and improve farmer livelihoods.
Source: Barry Callebaut
