Unilever Seeks Revival From New Spreads Chief as Exit Looms

  • Liabeuf replaces Gogarty at helm of struggling division
  • Change will likely renew speculation about sale: analyst

Unilever CEO on Earnings, Weak Commodity Prices

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Unilever appointed a new chief to its struggling spreads unit amid speculation that the company is edging closer to a sale of a business whose brands include Flora and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.

Nicolas Liabeuf, a former senior vice president of marketing operations at Unilever, is replacing Sean Gogarty to lead the division, Unilever Chief Financial Officer Graeme Pitkethly said Tuesday after the Anglo-Dutch company reported estimate-beating quarterly sales. Gogarty had been in the post since December 2014, the same month that Unilever split the spreads business into a standalone subsidiary after two years of disappointing growth.