Our history

Unilever Canada's history

Over the past 100 years Sunlight, Vaseline, Pears, Pond’s, Red Rose & Lipton and other quality branded products of Unilever Canada, have become familiar features in Canadian homes.  They have earned a place in the life of virtually every consumer.

Innovation

Unilever’s history in Canada is a story of innovation and marketing leadership.  It began with William Hesketh Lever, a wholesale grocer from Lancashire England, who introduced Sunlight Bar Soap to Canada in 1888.  Sunlight in those days was better than contemporary products and by packaging it in small bars offered greater convenience to both the trade and consumers.

Entrepreneurship

Other Unilever Canada operations also have a heritage of entrepreneurship and innovation.  Before the turn of the 20^th century, Thomas Lipton began packaging tea in quarter, half and one pound packages, a simple but new idea reflecting changing consumer preferences.  The origins of the personal products businesses go even further back.   Robert Chesebrough perfected his Petroleum Jelly in 1870 and Theron P. Pond’s entered the cosmetics field in 1891.  Vaseline and Pond’s Cold Cream came to Canada in the early part of the 20^th century.

Created in Europe

Unilever was created in Europe in 1930 when two international companies, Lever Brothers in the United Kingdom and Margarine Unie in the Netherlands, joined forces.  Common interests provided a compelling motivation as both were large-scale marketers of household necessities, used similar channels of distribution and required the same raw materials, vegetable oils and fats, one for the production of soap, the other for margarine.  Interestingly, the story of margarine in Canada is rather unusual.  Apart from two brief periods during the World Wars, margarine was illegal in Canada until 1949 and even then it was subject to discriminatory regulations.   

Margarine

Unilever, of course, entered the market as soon as possible and is the market leader today.  However, a Unilever company has produced margarine on the island of Newfoundland since 1925 and when Newfoundland entered Confederation, one of their conditions was that the Province not be subject to the mainland regulations!

Today we continue to produce and market a wide range of food, home and personal care products to meet the everyday needs of Canadians from coast to coast. Recently we have added the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream brand, the Slim-Fast brand, as well as Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, Skippy Peanut Butter, and Knorr brands to the Unilever portfolio.

Headquarters in London

Unilever Canada Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Unilever PLC, which has its headquarters in London, England.   Unilever PLC along with Unilever NV, a Dutch company based in Rotterdam, form the Unilever group, one of the world’s largest consumer products companies, operating in 100 countries. Unilever aims to be the foremost company in meeting the daily needs of consumers across the world in its chosen markets.

The heart of today’s business is unchanged from over 100 years ago. The key remains anticipating the aspirations of our customers and consumers and then providing products, which meet their present and emerging needs.