Innovation in Unilever
Innovation is the engine of Unilever’s growth; the lifeblood of our business. Our future depends on our ability to bring innovations to market more quick than our competitors.
Innovations with real and proven consumer benefits
In a fast changing market, the importance of innovation is only going to grow. Research and Development (R&D) plays a key role in delivering proprietary breakthrough innovations.
At the heart of our business
R&D is therefore treated as an investment aligned closely with overall business strategy. Furthermore, Geneviève Berger, Chief R&D Officer, is a member of the Unilever executive board.
Global scope
As we look ahead, we face many challenges. Competition is fierce and increasingly global, so it’s crucial that we constantly introduce new products and improve existing ones. Key to all this is the discovery and application of new proprietary technologies that address un-met consumer needs and/or improve product functionality.
Investing €927m into R&D in 2008, we employ more than 6000 R&D professionals around the world. We have 6 global research laboratories in Vlaardingen (NL), Colworth and Port Sunlight (UK), Trumbull (US), Bangalore (India) and Shanghai (China).
These are connected to 13 global product development centres which focus on turning a new discovery (a new technology, ingredient or insight) into a new product for global roll-out.
Finally, we have regional and country technical implementation centres, providing the technical expertise to bring new innovations to local markets and to constantly renew existing products for better value.
A changing landscape
Around the world, health and vitality are amongst the most important consumer needs, and people expect science and technology to help them achieve their goals.
Developing and emerging markets
The purchasing power of developing and emerging markets already exceeds that of America, Europe and Japan combined─its rate of economic growth is double. The developing and emerging markets are also home to the fastest growing over-60 population.
In the future, these markets will account for the majority of our business (in 2008: 48% of our sales). Our unparalleled footprint and strong history in these regions, as well as extensive local knowledge, means we’re well placed to deliver products that meet the needs of these populations as they grow in size, wealth and aspiration.
Unilever seeks to build R&D capacity in all of our key markets, to gain greater consumer understanding and offer solutions close to our consumers. Our global R&D network covers all regions, and we have invested strongly in building large R&D centres in China (Shanghai) and India (Bangalore and Mumbai), ensuring they are networked with our established centres in Europe and the US.
