Collaborate to Innovate: Unilever Seeks Help with new Technical Challenges to Support Sustainable Growth

LONDON, October 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Unilever, one of the world's largest consumer goods manufacturers, has released a new set of challenges to the world's innovation community to help the business deliver on its sustainable growth agenda.

In March 2012, the company's Open Innovation team launched a new online platform which offered experts the opportunity to find some of the technical solutions it needs to achieve its ambition of doubling the size of its business while reducing its environmental impact, as set out in the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

Following the success of the platform, Unilever has now unveiled the details of another three research projects for which its Research & Development department is seeking external know-how.

The company hopes it will receive a similar response to when it announced its first ten open innovation "wants" earlier this year. The platform has now received more than 1,000 submissions, ranging from ideas which tackle the challenges set by Unilever, to other technical solutions and new product ideas.

"We've been hugely impressed by the quality, ingenuity and inventiveness of the submissions that we've received since we launched our Open Innovation platform six months ago," said Jon Hague, VP Open Innovation, Unilever.

"We have a long track-record of working with external partners to develop new technologies, so we were already very aware of the strength and depth of the innovation talent which exists outside of Unilever. However this was the first time we have shared our research projects in such an open forum and it's very exciting to have tapped into a new community of inventors who share our passion for sustainable innovation and creating a better future for our consumers and the environment."

Unilever is in advanced discussions with several technology companies as a result of publishing its first set of "wants" in March. The challenges ranged from technologies which could create lighter and more sustainable packaging, to laundry products which perform just as well with less water and lower temperatures.

The three new "wants" which Unilever is seeking collaboration on span two of its four global categories, Homecare and Refreshments. They are:

• New technologies which break down fatty deposits left on clothes and hard surfaces in an efficient, odourless and environmentally friendly way. The solution could be incorporated as an ingredient in the detergent formulation or work as a pre-treatment application.

• New technologies which enable us to reduce the sugar in our ready-to-drink teas by 30 per cent, without impacting on their taste or mouthfeel.

• New technologies which enable us to stabilise natural red colour cost-effectively, for use in our fruit and dairy products. The solution must maintain the stability of the colour throughout its shelf life and be water soluble.

All ideas submitted on all 13 wants will be assessed by Yet2.com, an independent open innovation consultancy, before any reach Unilever's Open Innovation team.

Since Unilever's Open Innovation team was founded in 2009, the number of research projects which involve external collaboration has increased from 25 per cent to around 60 per cent.

Notes for the editor

The Open Innovation site can be found at: http://www.unilever.com/innovation/collaborating-with-unilever/

About Unilever

Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods with operations in over 100 countries and sales in 190. Consumers buy 170 billion Unilever packs around the world every year, and our products are used over two billion times a day. We have more than 171,000 employees, and generated annual sales of €46.5 billion in 2011. More than half our sales are generated in emerging markets (56% in 2011). Working to create a better future every day, we help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others. Our portfolio includes some of the

world's best known brands such as Knorr, Hellmann's, Lipton, Dove, Vaseline, Persil, Cif, Radox, Sure and Lifebuoy.

Our ambition is to double the size of our business, while reducing our overall environmental impact (including sourcing, consumer use and disposal). We are also committed to doing what we can to improve health, nutrition and hygiene, with goals to help more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being, as well as to source all our agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020. Supporting our three big goals are more than 50 time-based targets in the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

Unilever has led the Food Producers sector in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Indexes for 14 consecutive years. In 2012 we were also named leader of the Food and Beverage supersector. We are included in the FTSE4Good Index Series and attained a top environmental score of 5, leading to inclusion in the FTSE4Good Environmental Leaders Europe 40 Index. In 2011 Unilever led the Climate Counts Company Scorecard and for the second year we topped the list of Global Corporate Sustainability Leaders in the GlobeScan/SustainAbility latest annual survey (2012).

For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit http://www.unilever.com

Unilever R&D involves over 6,000 professionals, six strategic centres for global R&D and 31 major product development centres. The strategic centres are located in Trumbull, US, Port Sunlight and Colworth in the UK, Vlaardingen in The Netherlands, Bangalore in India and Shanghai in China. In 2011, our investment in R&D was around €1bn.

SOURCE Unilever Plc