Unilever: Manufacturing Innovation Tailored to Market Needs

With promising results in the first quarter of 2024, Unilever continues to go from strength to strength. 

It's ongoing success aligns with a larger cultural transformation in how we view cleaning tasks and home care. 

Today these tasks are conceptualised as wellness activities, about more than just removing stains and killing germs.

Unilever is embracing this perception, driving innovation across its manufacturing process to make it's products even more geared towards consumer preferences. 

Eduardo Campanella, Business Group President, Home Care at Unilever shared more on the company's website.

The Unilever growth plan

"In the first half of this year, our Home Care business in the region delivered double-digit growth, at just under 13%, plus we’re growing ahead of the market," Eduardo says.

"This is the highest underlying sales growth in ten years in a market that consistently grew low single-digit. Importantly, the growth was volume-led."

Volume growth describes a physical growth in physical volume of sales. Meaning more people have gone to the supermarket and opted for Unilever products over available alternatives. 

In a extremely competitive and crowded home care market, that's a notable achievement and brings us onto the question of how it was made possible.

"The turnaround was made possible by investment in our Power Brands to develop scalable, multi-year innovations that respond to changing consumer behaviours and needs," Eduardo adds.

"That coupled with a transformation of our supply chain."

These innovations are thanks to Unilever's material and product innovation, refined at the company's manufacturing R&D centres.

Unilever has been creating new innovative domestic products at three important Unilever R&D sites: The Materials Innovation factory, the Product Innovation lab and the Advanced Manufacturing Centre. 

At these sites industrial robots and advanced AI have been used to deliver increased productivity, efficiency and insight. 

With a portfolio of more than 20,500 patents and millions in investment, Unilever's manufacturing innovation aligns with it's broader Growth Action Plan.

"Unilever’s Growth Action Plan has three priorities: delivering higher-quality growth, stepping up productivity and simplicity and adopting a strong performance focus," says Eduardo.

"The success of Home Care in Europe is a strong demonstration of this strategy in action."

Making cleaning quick & easy

A core part of Persil's current success is rooted in its innovation.

The manufacturer has listened to its customers, creating products geared towards the needs of modern consumers and then capitalised on their subsequent social media virality.

This has happened specifically with a product from a flagship brand, Persil Wonder Wash.

"We designed it specifically for short cold cycles in response to the growing trend for speed and convenience," says Eduardo.

"It’s early days, but it’s already the fastest-growing innovation in the category.

"And it’s attracting new consumers to our Dirt Is Good brand, including pre-family households, Gen X and empty nesters."

Another example of a product designed around customers is Domestos Power Foam.

Research has found that Gen Zs and Millennials find cleaning boring, so they prioritise product speed and efficiency. Domestos Power Foam, which can be sprayed upside down to reach underneath toilet rims, delivers on this front. 

The product gained double-digit market share in the UK in just 18 months.

"Lastly, there’s our Sun Machine Dishwash Tablets, which also respond to this convenience trend," says Eduardo.

"More than 50% of consumers currently pre-soak, but with these you don’t have to. They also work well on short cycles, which almost 70% of consumers use on a weekly basis." 

Unilever understands that attitudes and cultures around cleaning are changing- stepping up its manufacturing and marketing to match.

Capitalising on wellness trends

"For many people, cleaning their homes took on new meaning during the pandemic," Eduardo explains.

"They’re increasingly seeing it as a way to relax – a new form of self-care. This shift is amplified by the influence of digital platforms and social media, particularly among younger generations."

Eduardo gives the example of TikTok's #CleanTok trend, led by platform ‘cleanfluencers’ and content creators. This is the platform’s most followed hashtag (with almost 150 billion views), outperforming #BeautyTok (112 billion) and #CookTok (six billion).

Creators in this community show large cleaning jobs or provide cleaning advice as entertainment. Eduardo notes how in the past, young people would've learned about cleaning from parents and grandparents and chosen products based off their recommendations. 

Today with sites like TikTok that has all changed. 

"For the first time, our products are taking centre stage," he says. 

"Now, they hear and share information via social media. 58% of TikTok users say they are more likely to trust brands after learning about them from creators’ feeds." 

Unilever also puts a lot of emphasis on fragrance, both as a means to differentiate and to further capitalise on growing trends around cleaning, homecare and wellness. 

"Our new Comfort Botanicals and Elixir ranges have patented technology that delivers ten times more fragrance," he says. 

"Both ranges are growing value share. Not surprising when you consider that – according to our own insights – 80% of European consumers want a home fragrance that lifts their mood and 30% would replace their current product with one providing emotional benefits." 

Supply chain transformation

Another area where Unilever is driving growth is through supply chain transformation.

"We’re investing €150 million (US$163.5m) in a significant transformation in productivity and efficiency over the next three years," Eduardo asserts.

"The majority is going into Port Sunlight, the home of research and development for our Home Care business.

"Here, we’re optimising the manufacturing set-up for our premium formats – liquids and capsules – and expanding our warehouse capacity to continually improve our logistics. This will enable further savings which we’ll reinvest back into our brands." 

Unilever's supply chain rewiring will only complement the bold, scalable manufacturing innovations its pursuing- all in service of creating products that better meet the needs of consumers today.

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