Unilever Taps Heiko Schipper as President, Nutrition Business Group
Unilever has tapped Nestlé veteran Heiko Schipper to lead the company’s nutrition business group as its president. He takes on the role and joins the executive leadership team beginning May 1.
Schipper most recently worked for Bayer Consumer Health, serving as its president since 2018, where he drove major performance improvements.
He brings extensive experience in global foods and nutrition. Prior to Bayer, he had a more than 20-year career with Nestlé, working across several sales and marketing roles in Asia and then leading Nestlé’s global Nutrition business division as CEO in 2014.
Unilever’s CEO Hein Schumacher said Schipper has deep expertise and experience in the food and nutrition industry and is a “very impactful, values-driven leader.”
“I look forward to working with him as we continue our focus on accelerating the growth of Unilever’s Nutrition business, which includes our leading Knorr and Hellmann’s global Power Brands.”
Unilever Restructure Includes Focus on Nutrition
This is one of several personnel moves since the company restructured its business in 2022, making nutrition one of five primary business units. The biggest brands in the segment include Knorr, Hellmann’s, Red Label, Horlicks, Unox, Bango, and Maille. Within this business unit are several categories: scratch cooking aids, dressings, beverages, and functional nutrition.
The company’s goals in nutrition include launching regenerative agriculture programs, highlighting nutrient-focused foods, increasing its plant-based portfolio, combating food waste, and more, ensuring innovation and sustainability “from farm to fork.”
As Schumacher has stated, the company is refocusing on its Power Brands, of which Hellmann’s is a driving force.
“They represent our biggest value-creation opportunity, which means they need to be brilliantly executed and consistently supported before anything else,” he previously said in a statement.
