The NACP adds the owner of Domestos, Rexona and Dove — Unilever to the list of "International Sponsors of War"

03.07.2023

The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has added British company Unilever onto its list of ‘International Sponsors of War’. The company is one of the world leaders in the market of food products and household chemicals. It owns more than 400 brands, products are produced at 280 enterprises, including: Domestos, Axe, Rexona, Dove, Calve, Rama, Brooke Bond, Crème Bonjour, CIF, Knorr, Sunsilk, Timotei, CLEAR and others. It has been added to the list because of its ongoing presence in the Russian Federation and its significant taxes to the Russian state budget, thereby supporting the aggressor's economy and contributing to the continuation of Russia's war against Ukraine. With more than 3000 employees in Russia it runs a significant operation that has increased its revenue and profit since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2022:

Unilever profits in Russia doubled from 4.8 billion rubles (€56 million) in 2021 to more than 9.2 billion rubles (€108 million) last year (an increase of 91%)
Thanks to the significant amount of profit obtained LLC "Unilever Rus" managed to increase its capital to 34.5 billion rubles in 2022 from 25.3 billion rubles in 2021 (increase of 37%)
Unilever Rus LLC paid about $50 million in taxes to the budget of the Russian Federation in 2022.

This strong performance is part of its global growth in 2022:

The company's revenue increased to €60,1 billion (+14.5%). Unilever's sales grew across all categories with the biggest increase in sales of cosmetics (+20.8%).
In 2022, the Russian business accounted for 1.4% of Unilever's turnover and 2% of its net profit, which in 2022 increased by 24.9% compared to 2021 and amounted to €8.03 billion.

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the company promised to suspend all imports and exports of its products to and from Russia, as well as halt all media and advertising spending. Yet it continues to operate at a large-scale with enterprises in Omsk, Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg and Tula continuing their work, offices still running operational activities and ensuring the presence of brands in shops.

“Unilever cannot say it is opposed to the war while at the same time contributing to Putin's war machine. We have added them as an International Sponsor of War because their hundreds of millions in tax contributions to the Russian state are helping to fund its attacks on Ukraine and could be indirectly funding a mercenary criminal group. Unilever has a new CEO in Hein Schumacher, it needs a new start and to live up to its values of human rights. Unilever must leave Russia now or history will record its complicity” — noted the Head of the NACP Oleksandr Novikov.

Such actions of the company indicate its reluctance to join the coalition of responsible business that has chosen the side of democracy and freedom. By financing the state budget of the Russian Federation with significant revenues, Unilever contributes to the Russian economy and, accordingly, supports the actions of the aggressor. The goal of the NACP is reputational pressure, so that it would be reputationally unprofitable for such companies to cooperate with the aggressor, they would close their business in Russia and realize the position of the entire democratic world. We would like to remind you that the list of "International War Sponsors" was developed by the NACP and posted on the "War and Sanctions" portal. All companies that cooperate with the aggressor and are included in the registry of "International War Sponsors" are entered into the world's largest database World-Check.