Unilever’s Hein Schumacher steps down, CFO Fernando Fernandez to take over as CEO from March 1

Unilever Plc pushed out Chief Executive Officer Hein Schumacher after less than two years, signaling that the board wasn’t satisfied with the pace of restructuring at the maker of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company said Chief Financial Officer Fernando Fernandez will take over as CEO on March 1 and hailed his ability to “drive change at speed,” hinting that the board wants to push Unilever’s transformation even faster.

Schumacher took over from Alan Jope in July 2023, at a time when investor confidence was low and after Unilever had granted activist investor Nelson Peltz a seat on the board. The Dutch executive quickly kicked off a shakeup that included plans to spin off its ice-cream business and cut costs.

Schumacher has tried to shift away from price-led growth where possible after a period of high inflation, focusing on expanding the volume of products sold. Unilever’s brands also include Dove soap, Knorr stock cubes and Pepsodent toothpaste.

The former boss of dairy cooperative Royal FrieslandCampina also watered down Unilever’s “purpose” agenda. Jope and his predecessor, Paul Polman, had argued household products espousing a social mission — such as empowering body confidence or promoting hygiene — perform better than those without. It was derided by some investors, who wanted to see more sales growth.

Shares of Unilever fell 1.7% in London on Tuesday. They’ve risen 8% during the tenure of Schumacher, who will stay on at the company until May 31.

“I regret leaving Unilever earlier than anticipated,” Schumacher said in email to Unilever staff seen by Bloomberg. “I stand by my record and approach.”

Chairman Ian Meakins said the decision for Schumacher to leave was mutual and the board was impressed with Fernandez’s “decisive and results-oriented approach” and “profound knowledge of Unilever’s operations.”

“While the board is pleased with Unilever’s performance in 2024, there is much further to go to deliver best-in-class results,” Meakins said.

Fernandez joined Unilever in 1988 and has overseen some of the company’s best-performing markets, including in Brazil and the Philippines. He was also president of the Latin America division.

Unilever’s decision to appoint a company lifer echoes a similar move at rival Nestle SA, which ousted CEO Mark Schneider last year and replaced him with Laurent Freixe, who has been with the Swiss food company for nearly four decades.

Fernandez will be taking over with Unilever in the midst of spinning off its ice-cream arm. The company said this month it will list the unit primarily in Amsterdam, with London and New York getting secondary listings. Unilever also reported a 4% increase in group underlying sales in the fourth quarter, narrowly beating guidance, and said profit should improve modestly in 2025.

The results suggested the turnaround under Schumacher “had stalled somewhat, with weak guidance and sales growth only likely to improve as the company passes on higher commodity costs,” said Chris Beckett, head of equity research at Quilter Cheviot.

Unilever said Tuesday there is no change to its annual guidance.

“We met with Hein just over a week ago, and he seemed to us to be very much his normal ebullient self. We certainly didn’t see this coming,” said James Edwardes Jones, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, who added that he was “gobsmacked” and “nonplussed” by the ejection of a CEO who was “universally” liked by investors.

“We wonder whether this is a victory for those Unilever insiders who resented the appointment of an external CEO and evidence of the old — and often dysfunctional — Unilever culture reasserting itself,” he said in a note to clients. “Fernando Fernandez, the incoming CEO, has been at Unilever for 37 years and might be a more acceptable change agent.”