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Formally, Unilever was created in 1930 by the merger of British soapmaker Lever Brothers and Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie. In the 1930s, the business of Unilever grew and new ventures were launched in Latin America.

In the 1950s, the company sponsored a cinemagazine, Unilever Magazine, to promote its interests to the public. It stopped producing film in 1971.

In 1984 the company bought the brands Brooke Bond (maker of PG Tips tea), Fabergé and Elizabeth Arden, but the latter was later sold (in 2000) to FFI Fragrances. Unilever acquired Chesebrough-Ponds, the maker of Ragu, Ponds and Vaseline, in 1987, which strengthened its position in the world skin care market. The company later absorbed the American business Best Foods, strengthening its presence in North America and extending its portfolio of foods brands.

Today the company is fully multinational with operating companies and factories on every continent and research laboratories at Colworth and Port Sunlight in the United Kingdom; Vlaardingen in the Netherlands; Trumbull, Connecticut, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey in the United States; Bangalore in India; and China.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilever; Accessed 24/5/2006: NoS Number 349870; Unilever Magazine Number 2; Date released 1951: NoS Number 349940; Unilever Magazine Number 9; Date released 1956.