Companies with these warrants are considered royal suppliers and feature the Royal Arms logo on their packaging. Up until recently, brands such as Marmite and Ben & Jerry’s had the Royal Arms on their products but no longer will.
“Whilst we are disappointed to be one of hundreds of other businesses and brands in the UK to not have a new warrant awarded, we are proud to have previously held one, and we fully respect the decision,” Unilever and Cadbury’s parent company Mondelez wrote in a statement.
Charles did not include an explanation for not renewing the warrant, which, in Cadbury’s case, had been active since Queen Victoria’s reign in the 19th century. Meanwhile, Unilever had its warrant since 2016.
Unilever came under fire for its continued operations in Russia after Russia invaded Ukraine in March 2022. The company was among the first to stop imports and exports in Russia but remained in production. Many other companies stopped selling their products there and closed their factories at the time. Activist group B4Ukraine wrote a letter urging the king to revoke Unilever’s warrant in June over the matter.
Hein Schumacher took over as CEO in July and opted to sell its Russian subsidiary in October. Schumacher also sold the business in Belarus in the same sale, which included four factories.
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“Over the past year, we have been carefully preparing the Unilever Russia business for a potential sale. This work has been very complex and has involved separating IT platforms and supply chains, as well as migrating brands to Cyrillic,” Schumacher said. “The completion of the sale ends Unilever Russia’s presence in the country.”
Every warrant lasts five years at a time and is reviewed the year before it expires. More than 500 companies have active royal warrants.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
