Unilever are being urged by campaigners to withdraw its Magnum ice creams from Russian markets, which they claim are helping to fund Putin’s regime and their invasion of Ukraine.
The British manufacturer revealed surging sales of non-essential products in its latest earnings report, as its ice cream sales were up by 9% in 2022 compared with the year before.
These include sales in Russia, where it is still selling most of its existing ranges in the country, which include mostly personal hygiene items, but also some ice cream brands like Magnum and Cornetto – despite pledging to supply only “everyday essential food.”
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Unilever’s Russia business contributed 1.4% of the group’s total turnover in 2022 (€60.1bn) and 2% of the group’s net profit (€8.3bn), the latest accounts showed.
Many other multinational companies, such as Nestlé and PepsiCo, now only sell essential goods in the territory.
“A Cornetto ice cream seems innocuous until you realise that millions of them being sold each day can quickly pay for the launch of a missile,” said founder of the Moral Rating Agency, Mark Dixon, which monitors western companies still doing business in Russia.
Unilever CEO Alan Jope said volumes in the Russian business were “down significantly by double digits” since it suspended all imports and exports in Russia last year.
“We understand that there are calls for us to leave, but for companies like Unilever that have a physical presence in the country, exiting is not straightforward,” he said.
Jope insisted that Unilever was “not trying to protect the commercial value of our business in Russia.”
The news comes as Unilever has warned that prices for consumer products will continue to rise further this year after publishing its full year results for 2022.
