Unilever AnD SinGAPOreA PArtnerShiP fOr SUcceSS

The Singapore – Unilever partnership goes back more than 50 years when Unilever was selling detergent and edible fats in Singapore. It has progressively built its presence

here, and today, Singapore is one of Unilever’s global operations hubs and regional business headquarters

for Southeast Asia and for Australasia.

From Singapore, Unilever is improving the lives of consumers around the world in a sustainable manner,

helping them look good, feel good and get more out of life.

Find out more about how Unilever and Singapore have formed a partnership for success.

ABOUT UNILEVER

UNILEVER sUsTAINABLE LIVINg pLAN

Aims to decouple growth from environmental impact and link it to positive social impact. By 2020:

of agricultural raw material sourced sustainably environmental footprint

billion

100% 1/21 billion

consumers worldwide use a Unilever product each day

Products sold in more than

countries190

of business in emerging markets

in 2013

57%

UNILEVER DELIVERINg sUsTAINABLE gROWTH

WITH sINgApORE

2

lives improved with better health and hygiene

double size of business€ 80 billion revenue:

DRIVINg EmERgINg mARkET gROWTH fROm sINgApORE

Regional business HQ for the Southeast Asia and Australasia cluster, and Unilever

Food Solutions

A strAtegic hUB for Unilever

100%

2000

247

50%

Lowe (Singapore and Mumbai) conceptualised 2013 Lifebuoy campaign, which taught children in rural areas to wash their hands to avoid diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia

The campaign began in the village of Thesgora, India, and reduced diarrhoea incidence from 36% to 5%

The campaign is now rolled out to villages across 8 other countries and scaled up in India to reach 45 million people

senior managers from around the world annually

of Unilever’s global leadership

programmes

Partners prestigious institutes of higher learning – INSEAD, Singapore Management University, Harvard Business School and Cambridge University

Trains more than Will run more than

Manages

from singapore

5 mAJORBRANDs

300,000 Local creative agency Arcade worked on 2013 global campaign for Clear shampoo, starring Heidi Klum in the US. Digital activation campaign on Facebook with

new fans in the first month of launch

cAnnes AwArds winner

vignette withmillion

on YouTube25 views

Exposes participants to Asia’s diverse culture and sensitivities

Helps participants create positive social impact

Logistics control tower gives optimal visibility

of regional supply chain from Singapore

Reducing carbon, water and waste footprint across

of manufacturing sites will have

ZEROmanufacturing sites

– global partnership with Jacobs Engineering Group

efficient And greensUPPly chAin mAnAgement

grooming fUtUre leAders

PArtners world-clAss Agencies to develoP gloBAl BrAnd strAtegies

sUstAinABle gloBAl BrAnd develoPment

non-hazardous waste by end of 2014

leadership training centres$80million

Global functions include brand development, supply chain

management, customer development, procurement, engineering, HR,

IT and finance

Global headquarters for Unilever International which grows and nurtures brands, serving targeted consumer segments such as international travellers,

loyal consumers of heritage brands including Pears and Marmite, and global institutional customers

€ €

Multi-cultural Singapore acts as bellwether for regional

personal healthcare

trends

€ 49.8billion revenue in 2013

Global consumer packaged

goods company

GlobAl brAnd STrenGTh drAwn From locAl knowledGe

“Since establishing the global brand team in Singapore four years ago, we’ve changed the course of Lifebuoy. We are now the world’s best-selling antibacterial soap in terms of sales and market share, and we’ve already changed the hand-washing habits of more than 200 million people.

Our mission is to save lives. Lives that are lost by preventable infections like diarrhoea and pneumonia. Lives that can be saved by the simple act of washing hands with soap. That social mission is why we get out of bed every morning. We’ve integrated teaching kids and families to wash their hands in Asia and Africa and Latin America into our business model. Of course, when people wash more hands, it helps our business. And because it helps our business we can do good at a level which is sustainable, making it bigger year after year.

Singapore’s world-class connectivity also helps us avoid being either hopelessly local, because then you lose all the synergies you gain from being a global marketing company, or mindlessly global because there really is no such thing as a global consumer. We serve local consumers in every country, and our prerogative is always to keep in touch with them.”

sAmir singh Global Brand Vice-President, Lifebuoy, Unilever

drIvInG eFFIcIency From A cenTrAl SUpply chAIn hUb

“We have centralized our logistics leadership for Asia in Singapore, which will afford us visibility of the supply chain end-to-end across the region. This allows us to work with partners and suppliers to identify opportunities for greater business efficiency and lower carbon footprint.

Singapore has capabilities you won’t get in many other places. The island’s position as a regional transport hub attracts global logistics experts and it being a financial centre gives you banking skills. Then there’s analytics talent too, which is where the next five years is going as we move away from a bricks-and-sheds supply chain into big data.

When it comes to sustainability, we’ve achieved a lot of the low-hanging fruit and future gains are going to need R&D on a scale and depth that’s only achievable if we work with external experts. In Singapore we can find those partners. Take our work to ensure sachets are fully recycled: we sell seven billion sachets in Indonesia, 10 billion in India, which at the moment go into waste piles. My team is looking at unique technology that’s being developed here and in Germany. That’s what will give us true edge and help us answer the really difficult, important questions in sustainability.”

dAvid ingrAmSenior Vice President, Supply Chain Asia, Unilever

developInG leAderShIp TAlenT From SInGApore For SUSTAInAble GlobAl GrowTh

“Four Acres has always played a special part in nurturing authentic leaders with purpose to support the growth and evolution of Unilever’s business. Our state-of-the-art leadership development campus in Singapore is critical to achieving our 2020 vision.

Being in Singapore puts us at the gateway to the fast-growing emerging world and allows us to tap the expertise that exists among our senior leaders based here, including our COO. They regularly return to Four Acres Singapore to support our ‘Leaders teaching Leaders’ tradition.

Our top 650 people go through the authentic leadership programme, living and learning together here on campus. It gives them the space to reflect on how their personal principles and motivation can align with Unilever’s vision to grow our business while creating positive social and environmental impact.

Singapore’s elite academic community is crucial too. We have INSEAD next door and ESSEC on the other side. We also work closely with local universities including Singapore Management University, which now contributes to our programmes in Singapore and London. This proximity to world-class faculties is shaping our leadership training globally.”

Betty lAU Global Learning Director, Four Acres Singapore, Unilever

Interview with Alex von behr, chief customer officer, Unilever:

how Unilever is enhancing lives through partnerships and innovation from Singapore

AboUT edb

The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) is the lead government agency for planning and executing strategies to enhance Singapore’s position as a global business centre. EDB dreams, designs and delivers solutions that create value for investors and companies in Singapore. Our mission is to create for Singapore sustainable economic growth with vibrant business and good job opportunities. EDB’s Home strategy articulates how we are positioning Singapore for the future. It is about extending Singapore’s value proposition to businesses not just to help them improve their bottom line, but also to help them grow their top line through establishing and deepening strategic activities in Singapore to drive their business, innovation and talent objectives in Asia and globally.

conTAcT US

edb heAd oFFIce(SInGApore)

250 North Bridge Road#28-00 Raffles City TowerSingapore 179101

Tel: (65) 6832-6832Email: clientservices@edb.gov.sg

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