Unilever completes $267 mn sales

Dutch food and cosmetics giant Unilever said Monday it had completed the $267 million sale of its North American frozen meals business to US-based ConAgra, part of its plan to exit the sector. Under the transaction Unilever licenced the Bertolli brand name for use in frozen foods and transferred its licence for P.F. Chang's Home Menu brand to ConAgra. Unilever said it had kept the Bertolli trademark and will continue making pasta sauce under that brand at a facility in Owensboro, Kentucky. When announcing the deal last month, Unilever said the sale was "in line with the company's global strategy to exit the frozen foods business." One of the world's leading suppliers of consumer goods, Unilever owns a wide variety of brands including Knorr, Lipton, Dove and Vaseline. It employs 167,000 workers in 100 countries. Based in Omaha, Nebraska, ConAgra is one of the largest US-based food companies, with brands that include Hunts, Wesson, Swiss Miss and Hebrew National. It employs more than 26,000 people.