Unilever Middle East
Unilever's first business in the Middle East started in Saudi Arabia in the 1930's and by 1978 the first factory was set up in Jeddah to supply the region with home and personal care products. Expansion into the neighboring Gulf states followed and state of the art manufacturing facilities were set up, including Lipton Tea Factory in Jebel Ali, UAE, which has become the second largest tea factory in the world.
In Egypt, Unilever established in 1991 a joint venture with Fine Foods Company, part of the Rachid Group. This was followed by the establishment of Lever Egypt in 1992. In June 1999 Fine Foods Group & Lever Egypt merged to become Unilever Egypt, creating one of the largest FMCG businesses in Egypt.
In January 2001, the operations of Unilever Levant were merged into Unilever Egypt to create Unilever Mashreq. In addition, the company assumed responsibility for Iraq, Sudan and the Palestinian Authority. Unilever Mashreq remains a joint venture between Unilever & Rachid Group and encompasses the markets of Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian Authority.
Today, Unilever Middle East employs over 4 800 people. It is one of the top cash generating businesses in Unilever and region's single largest advertiser, building global brands that understand the relationships between nutrition, hygiene, and personal care for Middle East consumers. Unilever Middle East has earned category leadership position in most of the categories it is present in, including Tea, with Lipton and Brooke Bond brands, Oral Care, with Signal and Close-up brands and Skin Cleansing and Care, with brands like Fair and Lovely, Dove, and Vaseline.
Unilever Middle East is part of the wider Unilever North Africa and Middle East geographic cluster that operates under a unified Leadership Team whose role is to align, coordinate and leverage the operations of the businesses across the four business units: Maghreb (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya), Mashreq (Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Sudan, Syria), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Gulf (U.A.E, Oman, Bahrain, Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar).
