Unilever Investor Terry Smith Slams Focus on Sustainability (1)

Unilever Plc has “lost the plot” and is obsessed with publicly displaying sustainability credentials at the expense of focusing on the business, according to one of the company’s biggest investors.

Terry Smith, the founder of Fundsmith and one of Unilever’s top 15 shareholders, criticized the maker of Magnum ice-cream and Dove soap in his annual letter to investors. Unilever shares dropped 5.1% last year, making it Fundsmith’s worst-performing consumer goods stock.

Smith in his letter took issue with Unilever’s decision to stop selling Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, as an example ...