Unilever will separate its Ice Cream business as part of its Growth Action Plan (GAP), including Ben & Jerry's and Magnum.

Following separation, Unilever will become a simpler, more focused company, operating four Business Groups across Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care and Nutrition. These Business Groups have complementary routes to market, and/or R&D, manufacturing and distribution systems, across both developed markets and Unilever’s extensive emerging markets footprint.

The separation of Ice Cream will assist Unilever’s management to accelerate the implementation of its GAP, announced in October 2023, which is focused on doing fewer things, better, with greater impact to drive consistent and stronger topline growth, enhance productivity and simplicity, and step-up Unilever’s performance culture.

The Unilever board is confident that the future growth potential of Ice Cream will be better delivered under a different ownership structure. Ice Cream has distinct characteristics compared with Unilever’s other operating businesses. These include a supply chain and point of sale that support frozen goods, a different channel landscape, more seasonality, and greater capital intensity.

Separation activity will begin immediately, with full separation expected by the end of 2025. 

The separation of Ice Cream will create a world-leading business, operating in a highly attractive category, with brands that together delivered turnover of €7.9 billion in 2023. The business has five of the top 10 selling global ice cream brands including Wall’s, Magnum and Ben & Jerry’s, with exposure in both the in-home and out-of-home segments across a global footprint, Unilever stated.

"As a standalone, more focused business, Ice Cream’s management team will have operational and financial flexibility to grow its business, allocate capital and resources in support of the company’s distinct strategy, including further optimizing its manufacturing and logistics network, and developing wide-reaching, flexible, distribution channels over and above the changes that are currently under way in the business," the company said. 

A demerger of Ice Cream is the most likely separation route, and in that case we expect the company to operate with a capital structure in line with comparable listed companies. Other options for separation will be considered to maximize returns for shareholders. The costs and operational dis-synergies relating to the separation of Ice Cream will be determined by the precise transaction structure chosen.

Separation activity will begin immediately, with full separation expected by the end of 2025.