December 21, 2016, Dubai, UAE: CEO Paul Polman today inaugurated Unilever’s Dubai Personal Care (DPC) manufacturing facility located in Dubai Industrial Park, UAE. The factory is MENA’s largest personal care liquids manufacturing unit in investment, output and size.
Set up with an AED 1 billion (€250 Million) investment, this 100,000 square meter facility will manufacture Unilever’s key beauty and personal care brands such as Dove, Fair & Lovely, Lifebuoy, Vaseline, Clear, TRESemmé, and Sunsilk, catering to the rapidly increasing demand in the region.
Highlighting the importance of the GCC region and the UAE in particular as focal markets for Unilever, CEO Paul Polman said “Choosing the UAE was a strategic decision. It is a trade corridor that connects the East and West, with important growth potential and world class infrastructure. Our new factory is testament to that – as the UAE’s largest private solar park, it reflects a shared vision of driving resilient, sustainable growth, underpinned by innovation.”
The facility uses state-of-the-art technology which, combined with a modular design, ensures faster, shorter and highly responsive production lines that cut lead time to market by 80%. The lines are additionally highly flexible to match market demand, while delivering the highest levels of product quality and safety.
Commenting on the contribution this facility will make towards the Dubai Industrial Strategy 2021, Sanjiv Kakkar, Executive Vice President MENA, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, said, “This facility will produce 100,000 tons annually and all products will carry a ‘Made in UAE’ label. 80% of these will be exported globally to Europe, Africa and MENA countries.”
The facility is designed to reduce waste and energy consumption, in line with the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. Our vision is to decouple our growth from our environmental impact while increasing our positive social impact. The facility will send zero waste to landfill and reuse the recycled water in its cooling systems.
Supporting Unilever’s commitment of becoming carbon positive by 2030, and the UAE’s Clean Energy Strategy, DPC is one of the first factories in the region to have both Solar Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal systems for one manufacturing plant. This makes it the UAE’s largest private solar park.
Abdullah Belhoul, CEO Dubai Wholesale City which hosts the facility, said, “We are proud to have a facility of this importance in our industrial hub, further enhancing our contribution to the Dubai Industrial Strategy. Unilever’s investment is a testimony to the opportunities that Dubai offers and its commitment to establishing a diversified knowledge economy. Manufacturing is key in our preparations for a sustainable future, and, at Dubai Industrial Park, we are committed to facilitating the growth of the manufacturing sector.
The factory is expected to create up to 400 jobs locally. At least 40% of the work force will be women to drive gender diversity and inclusion, with 36% female plant staff working in process engineering, operations, production planning, management, etc.
About Unilever
Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Food, Home Care, Personal Care and Refreshment products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2 billion consumers a day. It has 169,000 employees and generated sales of €53.3 billion in 2015. Over half (58%) of the company’s footprint is in developing and emerging markets. Unilever has more than 400 brands found in homes around the world, including Lipton, Dove, Knorr, Vaseline, Rexona, Sunsilk, Clear Shampoo and Magnum.
Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan commits to:
- Helping more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being by 2020.
- Halving the environmental impact of our products by 2030.
- Enhancing the livelihoods of millions of people by 2020.
Unilever is ranked number one in its sector in the 2016 Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In the FTSE4Good Index, it achieved the highest environmental score of 5. It led the list of Global Corporate Sustainability Leaders in the 2016 GlobeScan / SustainAbility annual survey for the sixth year running. Unilever is ranked the most sustainable food and beverage company in Oxfam’s Behind the Brands Scorecard in 2016 for the second year.
For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit www.unilever.com.
For more information on the USLP: www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/