Unilever moves European boss to senior HPC role

by Samuel Solley, Marketing 06-Jul-05, 14:59

Dave Lewis, the architect of the UK launch of Dove in 1992, has been named managing director of Unilever UK Home and Personal Care (HPC).

He fills the vacancy left by the promotion of Keith Weed earlier this year.

Lewis moves to the most senior position in the division from the role of senior vice-president for Central and Eastern Europe, where he oversaw a business that had annual sales growth of 10% during his three-year tenure.

Since starting his career as a marketing trainee at Unilever in 1987, Lewis has held various brand and customer management roles.

Weed was promoted to the role of group vice-president, homecare, in March, and now sits on Unilever's main board, where he has global responsibility for such power brands as Dove and Persil.

At the helm of Unilever UK HPC, Weed was responsible for the UK roll-out of Sunsilk, as well as the more recent launch of Pink Domestos.

The appointment of Lewis comes at a crucial time for the business, which is coming under mounting pressure from competitors including Procter & Gamble and Reckitt Benckiser, supermarkets' own-brands and hard discounting.

Lewis told Marketing he planned to concentrate the company's UK efforts on its power brands, such as Sure and Domestos.