23rd Dec 2005 10:49
Unilever PLC23 December 2005 Unilever NV and Unilever PLC 23 December 2005 UNILEVER SIGNS 7 YEAR CONTRACT WITH IBM FOR FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONAL SERVICES OUTSOURCING Unilever today announced it has signed a contract to outsource significant partsof its financial transactional services to IBM. This agreement covers more than20 European countries and is part of the One Unilever programme, which aims tostreamline the organisation in order to increase competitiveness in themarketplace and step up growth. IBM will provide financial services including Purchase to Pay, GeneralAccounting and Bill to Cash and will be delivered from IBM centres in Portugal,Poland and India. The deal is expected to deliver significant cost savings toUnilever throughout the seven years of the contract. These anticipated costsavings will contribute to the overall targeted €700 million annual savings ofthe One Unilever programme. "IBM brings strong business process knowledge, deep technical expertise and aflexible, responsive business model to finance shared services. As a specialistin this area, IBM will be able to help us optimise our business processperformance, and deliver additional savings in support of our core business;offering consumers excellent brands and products", says Kees van der Graaf,president Unilever Europe. Van der Graaf added: "This change will affect quite a number of our employees inEurope. We are committed to treat all of them responsibly and will follow allappropriate consultation processes. When jobs are affected we will do our bestto find alternative employment". "IBM will apply business insight within our global network of operations tooptimise business performance. The agreement will create long-term economicbenefits for Unilever," said Tony Cronin, general manager, businesstransformation outsourcing, IBM. "This relationship is a strong example of thenew on-demand business IBM is targeting in the marketplace for BusinessPerformance Transformation Services." Unilever will follow a phased approach in implementation over approximately twoyears, starting in the first quarter of 2006. Approximately 750 people areaffected by this change. For further information: Tanno Massar Corporate Media Relations Director Tel +31 10 217 4844 [email protected] OR Richard Janes IBM Business Consulting Services Tel. +44 207 021 9370 [email protected] SAFE HARBOUR STATEMENT: This announcement may contain forward-lookingstatements, including 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of theUnited States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as 'expects', 'anticipates', 'intends' or the negative of these terms and othersimilar expressions of future performance or results and their negatives areintended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-lookingstatements are based upon current expectations and assumptions regardinganticipated developments and other factors affecting the Group. They are nothistorical facts, nor are they guarantees of future performance. Because theseforward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, there are importantfactors that could cause actual results to differ materially from thoseexpressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, including, amongothers, competitive pricing and activities, consumption levels, costs, theability to maintain and manage key customer relationships and supply chainsources, currency values, interest rates, the ability to integrate acquisitionsand complete planned divestitures, physical risks, environmental risks, theability to manage regulatory, tax and legal matters and resolve pending matterswithin current estimates, legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments,political, economic and social conditions in the geographic markets where theGroup operates and new or changed priorities of the Boards. Further details ofpotential risks and uncertainties affecting the Group are described in theGroup's filings with the London Stock Exchange, Euronext Amsterdam and the USSecurities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report and Accounts onForm 20-F. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of thisdocument. Except as required by any applicable law or regulation, the Groupexpressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly anyupdates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein toreflect any change in the Group's expectations with regard thereto or any changein events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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