Unilever to sell Boursin

Unilever has announced the planned of its French cheese-maker Boursin. The motive behind the sale is to raise cash for financing the group's other activities.

Boursin only factory is located at Pacy-sur-Eure in France. According to Frederic Legrand, a delegate from Force Ouvrière (the local union of Saverne), the factory is profitable, but it is the only cheese producer in the group, which wants to refocus on its core activities.

'Today, fresh cheese production is no longer at the heart of Unilever's strategy', said Unilever France spokeswoman Sophie Jayet. The sale of the factory was announced at a European works council meeting, during which the management also announced its plans to cut 20,000 of the group's 180,000 worldwide workforce. The cheese producer Boursin, which employs 150 workers, mostly at Pacy-sur-Eure, was founded in 1957 by Francois Boursin, who sold the company to Unilever in 1990.

There is no certainty over the identity of a potential buyer. “Anything is possible, it could be a dairy group or a pension fund,” Legrand said.