• Ad Age, Friday, August 3, 2007 11:15 AM

Throwing up a white flag on its U.S. laundry business--once a key battleground with global archrival Procter & Gamble--Unilever says it is exploring divesting the business as part of a plan to jettison underperforming brands. Key brands affected are All and Snuggle; others involved include Wisk and Surf. CEO Patrick Cescau says the company also would consider joint ventures or licensing deals.

The divestitures are part of a stepped-up restructuring effort in which Unilever will reduce its global headcount by about 20,000 over the next four years. It remains a major player in laundry products in Western Europe and the dominant player in emerging markets, such as Latin America and India, where the company remains committed.

P&G's victory on its home turf could prove less so should a new owner of the Unilever brands market them more aggressively or cut prices. In recent years, P&G has been able to hold--or even cut--ad spending on laundry brands while still gaining share, in part, because of less-aggressive competition by Unilever since its failed bid to launch detergent tablets early in the decade.

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