Consumer goods manufacturer signs outsourcing deal

Consumer goods giant Unilever has awarded a multi-million pound, seven-year contract to Accenture to manage IT applications across Europe.

The IT services firm will develop business applications and provide IT support to 25 European countries.

Unilever – which manufactures household brands such as Hellmann’s, Birds Eye and Domestos – expects to achieve significant cost savings by streamlining technology.

‘This deal allows us to create a simpler, more agile European IT function to better support Unilever’s growth agenda,’ said Neil Cameron, Unilever’s chief information officer.

Accenture will deploy a unified IT platform and service thousands of employees from six service centres.

The contract is part of the company’s ‘One Unilever’ programme, which will deliver annual savings of Euro700m (£486m) by streamlining business operations across Europe.

‘We are looking to give what is non-core to us to a specialist, where IT is a core part of their expertise,’ said a Unilever spokesman. ‘It will bring better expertise and resources.’

Unilever expects a number of staff will transfer to Accenture as a result of the deal.

In December, Unilever outsourced management of financial transactions in 20 European countries to IBM.