ADM and Unilever Sign Joint Business Development Plan
ADM and Unilever Sign Joint Business Development Plan
2015/1/6
ROLLE, Switzerland, Jan. 6 – Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) has signed a Joint Business Development Plan (JBDP) to continue to grow its relationship as an oils and fat supplier for Unilever (NYSE: UN) in Europe, North America and Africa.The JBDP defines the long-term strategy and goals for the relationship and provides a clear framework for how ADM and Unilever will work together to achieve those objectives. It also sets measurable goals around volume, new product development, growth, innovation and sustainability.
The JBDP will help advance existing cooperation between the two companies, such as the ADM/Unilever Soybean Sustainability Program in the United States, through which ADM sources and processes sustainable soy beans and supplies Unilever with oil for Hellmann’s Mayonnaise; and ADM and Unilever’s partnership with LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) in Europe, which promotes sustainable agricultural practices at the farm level to produce sustainable rapeseed oil for Unilever’s Flora spreads, as well as for Hellmann’s UK. The JBDP will also strengthen ADM's existing European sustainability initiatives, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, enhancing the company's supply chain to provide Unilever with more sustainably-produced oils and fats products.
“ADM’s end-to-end value chain allows us control of our product flow in ways that few in the industry can offer,” said Matt Jansen, ADM senior vice president and president, Oilseeds. “Strengthening our existing partnership with Unilever will allow us to build upon those capabilities and leverage our unique supply chain to continue to provide high-quality, sustainable ingredients and innovative solutions to Unilever and their customers.”
“Programs like the ADM/Unilever Soybean Sustainability Program and our joint partnership with LEAF are great examples of how we can creatively work together to deliver unique solutions for sustainable sourcing, and the JBDP will help advance that type of innovation between our companies,” said Amit Mohta, VP Procurement Commodities, Unilever. “We look forward to continuing to grow and expand our partnership with ADM.”
About Unilever
Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Food, Home and Personal Care products with sales in over 190 countries. We work with 174,000 colleagues around the world and generated annual sales of €49.8 billion in 2013. Over half of our company’s footprint is in the faster growing developing and emerging markets (57% in 2013). Working to create a better future every day, we help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. Our portfolio includes some of the world’s best known brands, 14 of which - Knorr, Persil / Omo, Dove, Sunsilk, Hellmann’s, Surf, Lipton, Rexona / Sure, Wall’s ice cream, Lux, Flora / Becel, Rama / Blue Band, Magnum and Axe / Lynx - now generate a turnover of €1 billion or more.
Our ambition is to double the size of our business, whilst reducing our overall environmental footprint (including sourcing, consumer use and disposal) and increasing our positive social impact. We are committed to helping more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being, sourcing all our agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020, and decoupling our growth from our environmental impact. Supporting our three big goals, we have defined nine commitments, underpinned by targets encompassing social, environmental and economic areas. See more on the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan atwww.unilever.com/sustainable-living/.
Unilever has been ranked number one in their sector in the 2014 Dow Jones Sustainability Index. 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. Unilever has been named sector leader of the CDP’s Forests programme for three consecutive years, and in 2014 led the list of Global Corporate Sustainability Leaders in the GlobeScan/SustainAbility annual survey - for the fourth year running. In 2014 Unilever was named in LinkedIn’s Top 3 most sought-after employers in all sectors for the second year running, and also LinkedIn’s No. 1 most sought-after FMCG employer worldwide.
Archer Daniels Midland Company
Media Relations
Jackie Anderson
media@adm.com
217-424-5413