Unilever Review, Sale To Permira
After a tough trading period and a review of its business to focus on high growth/high margin markets, it was announced on 9 February 2006 that Unilever was looking to sell the Birds Eye brand, as well as the European version - Iglo (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands and Portugal). These brands were worth £836M in sales, with profits of £115M a year, and employ 3,500 staff across Europe with 1,800 located in the UK. Heinz and Findus have also cut down on their frozen food production.
Unilever will retain the Iglo brand in Italy, where frozen food is still popular. In the UK, Unilever has said that frozen food is less popular than chilled food products, and has concerns over health and E numbers (European Union codes for additives) after it sternly told TV viewers, "We don't play with your food."
On 28 August 2006, it was confirmed that Unilever had agreed to the sale of the business, held since the late 1930s, to a private equity house Permira for £1.2bn.
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