Unilever puts the U in U-turn

The Anglo-Dutch consumer-products giant irritated shareholders with plans to redomicile in Rotterdam. Now it has beaten a retreat. Marina Gerner reports.

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Unilever's plan was nobody's cup of tea
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Unilever's failed plan to shift its headquarters to Rotterdam is reminiscent of Britain's Brexit referendum, says Peter Thal Larson on Breakingviews. Just like the UK government, the consumer products giant whose brands include PG Tips, Marmite and Domestos was "surprised by the force of the opposition and failed to make a compelling case".

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Marina Gerner is an award-winning journalist and columnist who has written for the Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement, the Economist, The Guardian and Standpoint magazine in the UK; the New York Observer in the US; and die Bild and Frankfurter Rundschau in Germany.

Marina is also an adjunct professor at the NYU Stern School of Business at their London campus, and has a PhD from the London School of Economics.

Her first book, The Vagina Business, deals with the potential of “femtech” to transform women’s lives, and will be published by Icon Books in September 2024.

Marina is trilingual and lives in London.