Unilever might have been lacking direction over the last few years, but a recent strategic transformation decision now has the European CPG conglomerate positioned squarely inside my wheelhouse. According to comments made during the latest Unilever earnings call, CEO Alan Jope stated, “after months of careful review, we have concluded that accelerating the shift of Unilever's portfolio into consumer health and well-being would position the company for faster growth in the coming decades.” I agree with that assessment, but why publicly show your hand to the competition? The problem was Unilever reportedly made an offer to buy the consumer healthcare division of GlaxoSmithKline that was created as a joint venture with Pfizer. With that failed M&A move showing the strategic intentions at Unilever, it became necessary to publicly assure shareholders that this is still the direction of portfolio evolution. That being said, Unilever leadership though clarified that they would not be proposing transformational acquisitions for the foreseeable future. Instead, Unilever intends to improve value creation in three ways including bolt-on acquisitions in Functional Nutrition. With its current Functional Nutrition portfolio in mind (Equilibra, OLLY Nutrition, Liquid I.V., SmartyPants Vitamins, and ONNIT), I discuss a handful of categorical bolt-on M&A moves that would make sense for Unilever.

Functional Nutrition brands mentioned: KOS, MaryRuth Organics, HumanN, Mud/Wtr, and HUEL.

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