By Jeroen Molenaar Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) — Unilever is set to unveil “big innovations” as soon as next year as Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman seeks to replicate the success Procter & Gamble Co. had with products like the Swiffer. Unilever, the world’s second-largest consumer-goods maker, expects the first results from its so-called Genesis projects to trigger new products next year, Chief Innovation Officer Genevieve Berger said in London. Genesis is a code name for scientific breakthroughs usable across Unilever’s product lines. “We’ll start with personal care and have a clear road map of applications in other categories,” Berger said in an interview, declining to give more specifics before products she said would be “big wins” are announced. Next year’s introductions will be on par with the yellow- tint-canceling whitener developed for Radiant detergent and Signal toothpaste earlier this decade, Berger said. Polman , her boss, knows how important consumer-goods innovations can be from his time as an executive at P&G, Unilever’s arch-rival. “It would be nice if Unilever could show some successes from innovations next year,” said Jan van der Hout , who helps manage 6 billion euros ($8.9 billion) at Allianz Nederland Asset Management BV in the Dutch town of Utrecht. “Compared to marketing and price cuts, which boost volume in the short term, innovation will lift volumes in a more sustainable way and will help lift prices. In contrast to Unilever, P&G has always been able to grow by innovating.” Swiffer Culture The Swiffer removable-cloth duster, introduced in 1999 while Polman was a P&G vice-president, got more than $100 million in sales in its first six months and became so successful that it entered pop culture, featuring in Saturday Night Live sketches. “Successful innovation was the obvious missing ingredient in Unilever’s turnaround during the Patrick Cescau years,” Martin Deboo , an analyst at Investec, said of Polman’s predecessor. “Chapter 1 in the Polman story is all about better execution and a more performance-orientated culture. “Innovation is chapter 2. Polman was at P&G when it rewrote the book on innovation during the first years under Alan Lafley ,” Deboo said of the U.S. company’s ex-CEO and current chairman. Deboo said he hadn’t expected “new, big-ticket” innovations to reach the market before 2011. After taking the helm at the maker of Knorr soup and Dove soap and Surf detergent in January, Polman promised to stoke sales growth after Rotterdam- and London-based Unilever lagged behind P&G and Nestle SA for years. He cut prices to boost sales growth by volume, and pledged to spend more on research, seeking the next round of products that can command premium prices. Optical Brighteners He has said Unilever’s R&D spending will be 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion), without giving a time frame, compared with about $2 billion spent by P&G over the last year. Berger, a medical doctor who once ran France’s National Center for Scientific Research and holds PhDs in physics and biology, says 17 Genesis projects are in development. She became head of Unilever’s global research and development in July 2008. Besides Genesis projects, she’s been involved in what Unilever calls “renovations,” or improving existing product lines, such as a new Magnum Temptation ice cream bar that has boosted sales for two quarters. “There is, with my appointment, more discussion at the top table around big innovations and big opportunities,” Berger said. “It’s quick. 2010 is already tomorrow. There’s a whole set of launches and innovations starting in 2010. Genesis as such would partly start in 2010 and will mainly be in 2011.” Unilever says one of its most recent “big innovations” was optical brighteners, which whiten laundered fabrics by emitting a bluish tint that cancels out traces of yellow. The company introduced the shading dye in its Radiant laundry detergents three years ago and, last year, added it to Signal White Now toothpaste to instantly whiten teeth. Innovation “is always going to be the main driver” of future sales and profit growth, Polman told analysts on Nov. 5. That day, Unilever reported the quantity of goods sold rose by 3.6 percent in the third quarter, the second straight increase after two quarters of declines. To contact the reporter on this story: Jeroen Molenaar in Amsterdam jmolenaar1@bloomberg.net .
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Unilever’s R&D Chief Berger Seeks Swiffer Repeat for P&G Veteran Polman
