‘WHY UNILEVER WILL CONTINUE TO GROW STRONGER’
THABO MABE, MD UNILEVER
No matter who you are, or where in the country you are, the chances are that Unilever products are a familiar part of your daily routine. Every day, all over the country, people reach for Unilever products. Unilever is proudly one of the country's leading suppliers of fast-moving consumer goods in all our three divisions - Foods, home care and personal care.
With it recent launch of lifebuoy medicated soap which pledges support to eradicate diarrhea, Unilever’s corporate purpose that states that to succeed requires "the highest standards of corporate behaviour towards everyone, the communities we touch, and the environment on which we have an impact, is been achieved in all ways.
In an interview with one of the company eggheads, Mr. Thabo Mabe who serves as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Unilever Nigeria Plc since May 1, 2010, a Member of the Corporate Governance and Executive Committees and Chairman of the Remuneration Committee, he revealed the reason behind Unilever intension to see health Nigerian, why the company will continue to grow among sundry.

What has been Unilever’s driving force in achieving many milestones?
The four pillars of our vision set out the long term direction for the company – where we want to go and how we are going to get there: We work to create a better future every day, We help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others. We will inspire people to take small everyday actions that can add up to a big difference for the world. We will develop new ways of doing business with the aim of doubling the size of our company while reducing our environmental impact.
We've always believed in the power of our brands to improve the quality of people’s lives and in doing the right thing. As our business grows, so do our responsibilities. We recognise that global challenges such as climate change concern us all. Considering the wider impact of our actions is embedded in our values and is a fundamental part of who we are.
Our corporate purpose states that to succeed requires "the highest standards of corporate behaviour towards everyone we work with, the communities we touch, and the environment on which we have an impact."
Always working with integrity is another angle we are exploring.Conducting our operations with integrity and with respect for the many people, organisations and environments our business touches has always been at the heart of our corporate responsibility. We aim to make a positive impact in many ways: through our brands, our commercial operations and relationships, through CSR programmes, and through the various other ways in which we engage with society.
We're also committed to continuously improving the way we manage our environmental impacts and are working towards our longer-term goal of developing a sustainable business.
Setting out our aspirations Our corporate purpose sets out our aspirations in running our business. It's underpinned by our code of business Principles which describes the operational standards that everyone at Unilever follows, wherever they are in the world. The code also supports our approach to governance and corporate responsibility.
Our brands are trusted everywhere and, by listening to the people who buy them, we've grown into one of the world's most successful consumer goods companies.
Look in your fridge, or on the bathroom shelf, and you're bound to see one of our well-known brands. We create market and distribute the products that people choose to feed their families and keep themselves and their homes clean and fresh.
People's lives are changing fast. As the way we all live and work evolves, our needs and tastes change too. At Unilever we aim to help people in their daily lives. So we keep developing new products, improving tried and tested brands and promoting better, more efficient ways of working.
We have a portfolio of brands that are popular across the country. Popular because of our two key strengths: Strong roots in local markets and first-hand knowledge of the local culture and World-class business expertise applied internationally to serve consumers everywhere.
Focusing on performance and productivity, we encourage our people to develop new ideas and put fresh approaches into practice. Hand in hand with this is a strong sense of responsibility to the communities we serve. We don't only measure success in financial terms; how we achieve results is important too. We work hard to conduct our business with integrity - respecting our employees, our consumers and the environment around us.
In our Foods category, we are the largest seller of packet tea with our Lipton brand leading the Foods and Beverages category, we are the category leader in margarine in the country with the Blueband brand and in savoury, our Royco and Knorr brands are household names you can't ignore.
In Home & personal car, we are highly visible in the home care market in the country, which includes cleansing and hygiene products, Our home care products, Omo and Sunlight are household names synonymous with home care and within the personal care market, we are very visible with brands like Lux and Pears to help you look and feel good.


Why the re-launch of lifebuoy into Nigeria markets when there are several medicated soaps in the country?

Lifebuoy Health Soap, currently the world’s highest selling health soap, has re-entered the Nigerian market. The relaunch is an opportunity to demonstrate Lifebuoy’s social mission of hand washing with soap for public health. The launch of Lifebuoy is a strategic action by Unilever Nigeria to fight germs and improve the health and hygiene of Nigerians by bringing them the World’s biggest health Soap brand. In line with the brand’s promise to “Stop Germs and Prevent Sicknesses”, Lifebuoy Soap is equipped with a specially ingredient called – Active 5 – which is produced with superior advanced technology and thus guarantees the promise of 99.9 percent protection from sickness-causing germs.
Let me refer to a preliminary findings of a recent study implemented by the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research in collaboration with other partners, 1 out of 10 children in Nigeria aged 5-10 have germs on their hands that cause diseases like diarrhoea and typhoid. This study further revealed that while 92 percent of Nigerian mothers believe handwashing with soap fights germs, only 17 percent reported that their children always wash their hands with soap at the critical times. According to the study, 88 percent of mothers desire more education on proper handwashing with soap. Our aim is to ensure that guided by these findings we can educate Nigerians on how hand washing with soap can prevent communicable diseases.
The new Lifebuoy which comes in four variants – Total, Herbal, Deofresh and Care, these variants defines a bigger purpose alongside growth, profit and market share. The brand’s social mission is shared and endorsed by the National Infection Control Agency (NICA), National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), and the Paediatric Association of Nigeria (PAN) among others.
We asking Nigerian to pledge by texting “defeat” to 20050, on facebook.com/lifebuoySoap this will go along way to save our children.
How will the money realized from the pledge get to the needy children?
Money realized from the pledge will be use in taking care of children suffering from diarhoer. We are going to use every avenue possible in conjuction with the ministry of health to get to every part of this country to put an end to this deadly disease called diarrhea.
And also we are calling on the corporate bodies, individuals to support this project for us all to have germ free society.