Unilever to cut 7,500 jobs and float ice cream firms

UNILEVER is to float its ice cream division home to Walls and Ben & Jerry's on the stock market as it cuts 7,500 jobs in a bid to boost returns and simplify the business.

- Geoff Ho

Chief executive Hein Schumacher said the London-listed firm is in the process of setting up a separate head office in Amsterdam for ice cream and that it is "open to options" about which stock exchange to use. Unilever expects to have completed the separation by the end of 2025.

The consumer goods giant said the cost of separation will be more than offset by the £683.8million in cost savings that it expects to make over the next three years from shedding 7,500 of the 128,000 staff it employs worldwide.