For its relative shareholder-return measure Unilever uses 18 international consumer goods and staples companies with whom, it says, it competes for market share. The list is unchanged for 2026.
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P&G is the closest match
Procter & Gamble overlaps with Unilever in hair, skin, deodorant and laundry, and is larger: its net sales rose 3% to $87.0 billion in the fiscal year to 30 June 2026.
Unilever sells Lipton ready-to-drink tea through joint ventures with PepsiCo, the Pepsi Lipton Tea Partnership in the US and Pepsi Lipton International elsewhere, while PepsiCo still sits in its peer group.
What changed in 2025-26
Ice cream rivals left with ice cream
Unilever demerged its ice cream business as The Magnum Ice Cream Company on 6 December 2025. Rivalries in frozen desserts now belong to that company, so Unilever’s competitive map is beauty, personal care, home care and foods.
A bet on the US and India
The US and India together made 32% of Unilever’s turnover in 2025, and Unilever aims to raise that to 45% in the medium term, which it says requires growth that significantly outstrips competitors there. In India it competes through Hindustan Unilever, in which it holds about 62%.
Unilever launched a Beauty AI studio with a technology partner and a Personal Care AI Studio to speed up the creation of marketing assets, governed by its Brand DNAi framework. Rivals with similar tools compete on how fast brands can make social content.
Unilever's rivals by Business Group (peer list from the 2025 Form 20-F)
Brand teams and agencies: the contest is moving to who can produce social and AI-made content fastest under brand rules.
The Business Engineer lens
Unilever’s rivalry is no longer one giant against another; it is a set of category fights where focused specialists set the pace and AI changes how fast brands can show up in social feeds and shopping assistants. The Business Engineer view is that the winners will be the brands that AI agents and shoppers pick first, which rewards fewer, stronger names.
Procter & Gamble overlaps with Unilever in the most categories, from hair and skin care to laundry, and had net sales of $87.0 billion in the fiscal year to 30 June 2026.
Does Unilever still compete in ice cream?
No. Its ice cream brands, including Magnum and Ben & Jerry's, moved to The Magnum Ice Cream Company on 6 December 2025.
A multinational consumer goods company known for brands like Pampers, Gillette, and Tide. P&G competes with Unilever in various consumer goods categories, including personal care and household products.
P&G is a major player in the consumer goods industry, competing with Unilever in personal care, household, and other consumer product categories.
Both compete in the consumer goods industry, offering a wide range of personal care and household products.
P&G’s portfolio of iconic brands and focus on innovation.
A multinational beverage corporation known for brands like Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, and Sprite. Coca-Cola competes with Unilever in the beverage and ready-to-drink tea segments.
Coca-Cola is a global leader in the beverage industry, competing with Unilever in segments such as ready-to-drink tea.
Both compete in the beverage industry, particularly in the ready-to-drink tea category.
Coca-Cola’s focus on carbonated and non-carbonated beverages.
Johnson & Johnson
A multinational healthcare and consumer goods company known for brands like Johnson’s Baby, Neutrogena, and Band-Aid. Johnson & Johnson competes with Unilever in personal care and healthcare products.
Johnson & Johnson is a major player in personal care and healthcare, competing with Unilever in segments like skincare and over-the-counter medications.
Both compete in the personal care and healthcare industry, offering products like skincare items and over-the-counter medications.
Johnson & Johnson’s healthcare focus and healthcare product range.
Colgate-Palmolive
A multinational consumer goods company known for brands like Colgate, Palmolive, and Hill’s. Colgate-Palmolive competes with Unilever in oral care and household products.
Colgate-Palmolive is a leading company in oral care and household products, competing with Unilever in segments such as toothpaste and dishwashing products.
Both compete in the consumer goods industry, particularly in oral care and household product categories.
Colgate-Palmolive’s emphasis on oral hygiene products.
Kraft Heinz Company
A multinational food and beverage company known for brands like Kraft, Heinz, and Philadelphia. Kraft Heinz competes with Unilever in various food product categories.
Kraft Heinz offers a range of food products and competes with Unilever in segments like condiments and sauces.
Both compete in the food and beverage industry, with a focus on condiments and sauces.
Kraft Heinz’s portfolio of food brands and condiments.
A multinational food and beverage company known for brands like Pepsi, Lay’s, and Gatorade. PepsiCo competes with Unilever in the snacks and beverages segments.
Both compete in the food and beverage industry, particularly in snacks and beverages.
PepsiCo’s focus on snacks and beverages, including iconic brands.
Kimberly-Clark
A multinational personal care and hygiene company known for brands like Huggies, Kleenex, and Scott. Kimberly-Clark competes with Unilever in personal care and hygiene products.
Kimberly-Clark is a major player in personal care and hygiene.
Both compete in the personal care and hygiene industry.
Kimberly-Clark’s focus on personal care and hygiene items.
PepsiCo: A renowned multinational food and beverage company famous for brands like Pepsi and Lay’s.
The Coca-Cola Company: A global beverage corporation recognized for its iconic soft drink products.
Danone: A multinational food-products corporation specializing in dairy, water, and baby food.
Home Care Companies:
Henkel: A German company offering home care and personal care products, including well-known brands.
SC Johnson: A global manufacturer of household cleaning products and consumer chemicals.
Reckitt Benckiser Group: A British multinational company offering health, hygiene, and home products.
Clorox: A leading manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products.
How AI Is Changing This
Procter & Gamble, one of Unilever’s primary competitors, is leveraging AI to revolutionize its product development and marketing strategies. The company has implemented AI-driven consumer insights platforms that analyze millions of data points from social media, online reviews, and purchase patterns to predict emerging consumer preferences. A concrete example is P&G’s use of machine learning algorithms to optimize their Olay skincare formulations, where AI analyzes skin imaging data and consumer feedback to develop personalized product recommendations and predict which ingredients will be most effective for different skin types. Additionally, P&G employs AI-powered demand forecasting to optimize inventorymanagement across their global supply chain, reducing waste and improving product availability. Their AI-enhanced digital advertising campaigns use real-time consumer behavior analysis to deliver personalized content, resulting in significantly higher engagement rates and more efficient marketing spend compared to traditional approaches.
In 2020, Unilever reported revenue of 50.72 billion. The company’s revenue increased in 2021, reaching a total of 52.44 billion. Unilever experienced significant revenuegrowth in 2022, with total revenue amounting to 60.07 billion.
In 2020, Unilever reported a net profit of 6.07 billion. The company’s net profit increased in 2021, reaching a total of 6.62 billion. Unilever experienced significant growth in net profit in 2022, with total net profit amounting to 8.27 billion.
Unilever is the world’s leading consumer goods company, making and selling around 400 brands in more than 190 countries in 2022 . With over 60 billion euros in revenues that span personal care, home care, foods, and refreshment, Unilever is the second largest advertiser in the world. Unilever can reach millions of consumers across the world thanks to its marketing campaigns.
Unilever generated over β¬60 billion in revenue 2022, comprising many brands spanning beauty & wellbeing, personal care, home care, nutrition, and ice cream.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
