Al Gurg Inaugurates New Unilever Office in Dubai

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – 29^th November 2010.  H.E. Easa Saleh Al Gurg, Chairman, Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group inaugurated today the new Sales and Distribution office for Unilever. The new office will play a key role in supporting the growth ambitions for Unilever in the region.

“The partnership between Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group and Unilever has been a success story spanning for over 50 years and we are proud of what we have achieved together to date,” explains H.E. Easa Saleh Al Gurg, Chairman, Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group.

The initial agreement between Al Gurg and Unilever dates back to the 1^st of March 1965. The agreement was later terminated and a new partnership agreement was signed on the 1^st of January 1986.

Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman, Unilever North Africa & Middle East states, “We are delighted with the opening of our new office, this will help us connect better with our key customers and better meet the needs of our consumers”.

The facilities in the new office include a gym, a lounge, an entertainment zone, prayer rooms in addition to other interactive facilities. “Our new office promotes new ways of working driven by our agile working principles”, explains Mehta.  Agile working principles have been established to allow employees to work more flexibly as long as business needs are being met. It is an approach that puts the employee in greater control over how, when and where he or she works. Performance is determined by results rather than factors such as time and attendance.

“Employee engagement levels within Unilever North Africa and Middle East are also relatively high when compared to any external benchmarks and we are proud of this accomplishment,” adds Mehta.

Al Gurg Unilever’s office and warehouse was previously located in the Al Aweer area in Dubai. While the office staff will now be relocating to the new base, Unilever’s warehouse will remain located in Al Aweer.  

Unilever’s regional head quarters for the North Africa and Middle East region is located in Jebel Ali Free Zone in Dubai. This is also where Unilever’s second largest Lipton tea manufacturing facility is based. Unilever is the largest tea producer in the world today and owns 264 manufacturing sites worldwide.

Unilever employs 163,000 employees in approaching 100 countries, and generated annual sales of €40 billion in 2009.

About Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group

The Chairman, H.E Easa Saleh Al Gurg, KCVO, CBE, who was the Ambassador of U.A.E. to the court of St. James (UK) and the Republic of Ireland, founded the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group in 1960 after gaining extensive experience in banking and finance. The first business was the Grundig sole distributorship followed by the British American Tobacco Agency. During the last  five decades several other prime agencies, real estate and manufacturing units were added, resulting in the present 23 companies in the Group, which together handle more than 200 agencies and manufacture a diversified range products.

The products marketed by the Group include cigarettes, tyres, electrical and electronic items, personal care products, detergents, beverages, household appliances, stationery, batteries, branded garments, cables, chemicals, furniture, building materials and steel. Some of the Group's principals include British American Tobacco, Unilever, Benetton, Siemens, Osram, Armitage Shanks, Stanton, Catnic, Yorkshire Copper Tubes, Dunlop, Heuga, Projects, Interface, Broyhill, Electrolux, Siematic Kitchens, Smeg  and many more.

About Unilever

Unilever works to create a better future every day.  We help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others.

We are one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods with strong local roots in more than 100 countries.  Our portfolio includes some of the world’s best known and most loved brands including eleven €1 billion brands, and global leadership in many categories in which we operate.  The portfolio features iconic brands such as Knorr, Lipton, Flora, Dove, Axe, Lux, Sunsilk, Vaseline, Omo & Comfort.

We have around 163,000 employees in approaching 100 countries, and generated annual sales of €40 billion in 2009.  For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit www.unilever.com. 

Lifebuoy: Global Handwashing Day Awareness Critical to Saving Lives

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 28 November 2010: Lifebuoy, Unilever’s leading skin cleansing
brand, is taking the lead and raising awareness in the GCC by establishing a region wide
survey on hand washing habits and educating people more effectively. The results so far
raise questions on whether adequate attention is being paid to this simple life saving habit.

The ongoing GCC wide survey has found that nearly 32 per cent of respondents do not
always use soap, which is the most effective tool to eradicate dangerous bacteria and should
be used as well as water to wash hands. Meanwhile, close to 65 per cent of people don’t
wash their hands for long enough to sufficiently kill deadly germs whereas in actual fact, the
recommended time is at least 20 seconds and on average most people spend less than 10
seconds.

In addition, the survey found that close to 70 per cent think that Diarrhoea kills less people
than HIV and AIDS, when in reality Diarrhoea and Pneumonia, which are readily spread by a
lack of efficient hygiene solutions, kill nearly 3.5 million children under the age of 5 every year,
alarmingly much more than HIV and AIDS.

“In 2010 alone Lifebuoy has covered up to 100,000 children by educating them on the
importance of washing hands with soap. However, the initial results from this research
suggest that we need to raise more awareness and accordingly our efforts will be ongoing,”
explains Iain Potter, Vice President Marketing, Unilever.

The simple act of washing hands with soap at key points of the day can reduce the incidence
of diarrhea rates among children under five by more than 40 per cent and respiratory
infections by nearly 25 percent. Additionally, major respiratory diseases can be reduced
dramatically by washing hands with soap, and studies suggest that the spread of the SARS
virus can be cut by as much as 55 per cent by washing hands 10 times or more throughout
the day.

“It is clear that there is much work to be done to raise awareness in the region of the
importance of hand washing with soap. Soap is a key factor in preventing potentially lethal
diseases and it is important that brands such as Lifebuoy continue to educate people.
Washing hands with water alone is not effective. Soap must be used to eliminate harmful
bacteria,” says Dr. Fadil Yousif Al-Najjar, Consultant Paediatrician, The Dubai Mall Medical
Centre.

Lifebuoy recently celebrated the 3rd annual Global Handwashing Day (GHWD) across the
Gulf with a series of school activities on October 15th, 2010, which has already reached

100,000 children in the UAE and Kuwait).

Global Handwashing Day was launched in 2008 by the global Public-Private Partnership
for Handwashing, with Unilever, a founding member. The Public-Private Partnership was
created as an active effort to align with the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, in
particular Goal number 4, which aims to reduce child mortality across the world, including in
developing nations by 2015.

Lifebuoy will continue to engage with consumers to ensure that its commitment to the the
United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals will continue to influence children and adults
to instigate change in handwashing habits in the GCC and across the world.

About Global Handwashing Day

Initiated in 2008 by the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap, Global
Handwashing Day is endorsed by a wide array of governments, international institutions, civil society
organizations, NGOs, private companies and individuals around the globe. For more information, please
visit http://www.globalhandwashingday.org

Global Handwashing Day 2010 will revolve around schools and children as the centrepiece of a week of
activities that will mobilize millions of people in more than 80 countries across all five continents to wash
their hands with soap.

About Unilever

Unilever works to create a better future every day.  We help people feel good, look good and get more
out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others.

We are one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods with strong local roots in
more than 100 countries. Our portfolio includes some of the world’s best known and most loved brands
including eleven €1 billion brands, and global leadership in many categories in which we operate. The
portfolio features iconic brands such as Knorr, Lipton, Flora, Dove, Axe, Lux, Sunsilk, Vaseline, Omo &
Comfort.

We have around 163,000 employees in approaching 100 countries, and generated annual sales of €40
billion in 2009. For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit www.unilever.com.