Unilever pushes ahead with Asia food, HPC merger

Coming after the departure of HLL HPC managing director Arun Adhikari to become chairman of Unilever Japan, Baillie's appointment is expected to also see the scrapping of HPC and Foods MD roles in India, in line with the global mandate to integrate the two business units in each market. Baillie, who will assume his new role on March 1, is currently Unilever group vice-president for Africa, Middle East and Turkey. "The biggest problem with Unilever in analyst eyes has always been the fact that the company has been run separately," said an agency source. "There was a lot of politics and separatism -- when they announced one Unilever CEO (Patrick Cescau), that was the signal they were going to combine the companies." Unilever has also consolidated decision-making at a sub-regional level for its Knorr brand. To lead this development, Eileen Araneta becomes vice-president of savoury for Southeast Asia, based in Manila, while Northeast Asia will be headed by vice-president Suppatra Paopiamsap, based in Shanghai.