It's actually come on now. The format today is Fernando's going to do a set piece presentation for about 30 minutes, and then I've got a few questions for him for 10 - 15 minutes, or 10 minutes. Then there's going to be a breakout next door, which you can join. I'm going to be here because I'm doing Nestlé back to back. That's the way it's going to work. Fernando, why don't you take the stage, and we'll go from there.
Good. Thank you, Warren, a nd thank you, Barclays, for having me here today. Good morning, everyone. It's a real pleasure to be with you. I have been the CEO of Unilever since March this year. Before that, the CFO of the company. Before that, President of Beauty and Wellbeing and many, many other executive roles in the company. I will try in the next 25 minutes or so to really give you five fundamental chapters of presentation. One is for the American investors that have not followed Unilever so closely, give you a brief snapshot of what Unilever is today. Then assure you that the fundamental organizational and portfolio changes we have embarked ourselves in the last two years are largely complete and are fundamentally behind us.
Be clear about what are my belief systems in order to accelerate performance and what are the clear priorities in terms of geographies, channels, categories, and segments in which Unilever will play. I will try to show you also how we are really making Unilever a marketing and sales machine, how we are driving desire at scale as a fundamental mantra to elevate our brands, and how we are really executing with rigor in every single geography. Finally, give you fundamentally a glimpse in what you can expect from Unilever in 2025 and beyond. We made a significant organizational change in 2022 after more than 100 years running the company on a geographical basis. We moved into a category-led organization at a global level. We set up the company in five business groups. Our revenue is $61 billion at 2024 numbers.
Beauty and Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, and Foods, all very sizable businesses between $12 billion - $14 billion. A fifth business group in an outcome of $8.3 billion that, as you know, we are separating by November this year. These five business groups are led by a Business Group President. They have full P&L accountability, end-to-end accountability. They own 93% of the lines of investment and cost in their P&L. We run these business groups with two to three verticals in each of them. We operate 13 verticals in the company nowadays. This is the company that we have today. We have strong financials. In 2024, we delivered $11 billion profit, 18.4% underlying operating margin. We delivered $7 billion cash. Our cash conversion has been very consistent in the last five years or so, around 100%.
Of these $7 billion cash, we returned to shareholders $5.8 billion, $4.3 billion in dividends, $1.5 billion in share buybacks. We have one of the best returns on invested capital in the sector at 18.1%. Strong financials and a strong competitive position. We have 80% of our revenue in leading positions in the geographies and categories where we operate. I know also that Unilever has been an inconsistent performer. We know what the gaps have been, particularly since the Kraft Heinz bid in 2017. Time flies and things change a lot, as you know. That really derailed Unilever a lot. We lost our focus in volume growth. We set up a margin guidance that really put the company very, very tight. There were many other issues in the company that we are addressing fast. A very complex organization. From 2005 to 2021, we ran a very heavy matrix of organization.
Very, very complex with the profit in the countries, but a very bloated organization in the center running category strategy, brands, innovation. We have been inconsistent in defining volume growth as our fundamental metric. I think very, very differently. I believe that what gives relevance to a company is to grow volume every single year. We have been very inconsistent in our investment behind our brands. We have used the BMI line as an adjustment to ensure earnings growth. We have had a very inconsistent performance culture. Some pockets of excellence. I grew up in one of them, our Argentinian company, our Latin American business, India, many other companies in Unilever, but also many pockets of mediocrity in the company. We recognize that, we know that this has to change, and we have made significant interventions in the company to really change this.
What we have changed, we have announced the separation of Ice Cream in March last year. It will complete by November this year. Ice Cream is a very good business. We have five of the 10 global brands, of the 10 biggest global brands, but it's a business with very different features to the rest of Unilever. High capital intensity, seasonality, completely different channel structure, et cetera. We are now focusing our portfolio in four business groups that are very complementary in terms of the R&D capabilities, technology, manufacturing, logistics, channels in which we operate. It's a more focused portfolio. The separation of Ice Cream has a significant impact in some of our financials. You know, our gross margin will go close to 47%. We have an expansion in our WOM and in our return on invested capital of around 100 basis points of each.
The business that remains is very, very attractive. We have also decided to focus our portfolio in certain power brands. I tend to say that one of the fundamental strategic issues of Unilever is that it's not truly a global company. It's a federation of local and regional brands. We are changing that. We used to operate with 400 brands. I'm sure Warren has that number in his mind. By the end of 2024, we have 200. Thirty power brands concentrate 75% of our revenue. They are accredited in volume growth. We delivered 3.8% volume growth last year in these 30 power brands. We have chosen these brands because they are the brands in which we believe we can scale them regionally, globally. We can allocate our best technology because there is a space for premiumization in all of them.
This is where we are putting all our focus for growth. We have also made some significant interventions in how we organize ourselves at the country level. The top 24 markets of Unilever are now run by the business groups, by each of the pillars, because these are businesses with enough critical mass to separate our organization. We believe that in these biggest markets, to compete with pure plays, like the ones we compete in beauty, or in foods, or in home care, or in personal care, we need a significant level of specialization. We need specific capabilities and skills in order to compete with these guys. In market 25 onwards, in the other 165 markets in which we operate, we will continue operating the company at the one Unilever level.
That's fundamentally to ensure that we really get the benefit of scale, efficiency, and productivity, with a very significant difference. In these 165 markets, we will support only eight brands. These are eight of our 30 power brands: five in beauty and personal care, two in home care, one in foods. Not a single penny will go for specific local brands in these smaller markets. My ambition is to make these one Unilever markets at least the contribution of power brands 90% in a relatively short period of time. We have also made significant interventions, and I'm talking to many of you in a very non-Unilever way in terms of our organization, in terms of accountability. In 18 months, we have reduced, in reality, 18% our white-collar workforce with the latest number we have.
We have announced that we were going to deliver $800 million savings by the end of 2026. By the end of this year, we are already in $650 million cumulative savings. Importantly, we have absolute accountability now in the company. Four Business Group Presidents, 44 P&L units. I have their names. I have their phones. You know, I know who they are. You know, nobody can hide. Results are starting to show. In 2024, we delivered our highest volume growth in a decade. We delivered our highest gross margin in a decade. We invested the percentage of our highest in a decade. 2.9% volume growth, 45% gross margin, more than 15% investment in brand and marketing investment, and an increase in the last four or five years of 33% in our marketing budgets.
You know, it shows we were top three in our peer group when it comes to volume growth, both in 2024 and in the first half this year. You know, as you know, I speak volume. I don't speak any other number. You know, pricing is fundamentally to compensate inflation. We are very, very happy with the development that we have had in volume in a context of very difficult market conditions. Let me now go into how we will, and particularly what am I doing personally in instilling a plane-to-win culture and ultra-competitive winning culture in Unilever. What are we doing to really ensure that the portfolio we operate has more tailwinds than headwinds? First of all, it's about speed in decision-making and decisiveness in decision-making. We have taken big decisions, and we are taking decisions with 70% certainty fast. You know, because 90%-100% certainty, you are late.
Late in consumer goods is a very bad word. We are building a new marketing philosophy built around two fundamental concepts: desire at scale to elevate the aspirationality of our brands and market making, because the only way in FMCG to ensure consistent share gain is to create markets, to create formats, to create segments, and get a disproportionate share of the new segments that emerge. We are ensuring ruthless execution everywhere, in every market. We have codified what are the metrics we will measure. All our operators, these 44 guys in the markets, know what they have to deliver. We are fed up with the mediocrity that we have in some places. We are attacking that fast. We are ensuring accountability, as I mentioned before. We have a new breed of leadership. The Board of Unilever is different.
The Leadership Executive of Unilever and the first CEO of Unilever coming from emerging markets, there is a clear blend of cultures in the new leadership team. There is a significant influx of non-Unilever born and bred people into the leadership of the company. In terms of talent, we are now assessing our top 200 leaders with Korn Ferry, one by one, ensuring the benchmarking with the market. Are they good enough? Are they at the level that Unilever deserves? Yes or not? We expect 25% refreshing from that. We are fast tracking emerging stars. We are bringing new people from the market. We have changed significantly the incentive system. We have increased the range of incentives for performance from, you know, now from 0 to 200.
Also, very important, our long-term incentive plan now is fundamentally a hard currency incentive system. That is very different to what Unilever used to have in the past. I have seven clear priorities: more beauty, more well-being, more personal care, more premium, more e-commerce, more U.S., more India. Our money is going following these priorities. You can like it. You cannot like it. We are very clear about what we want to do. These are the priorities we have in terms of our categories, our segments, our channels, and our geographies. There is a fundamental transformation in the Unilever portfolio. Beauty and Personal Care now are 51% of our revenue, and our ambition is to make it two-thirds of our revenue in the midterm. You can see there the significant reduction of exposure to foods and refreshments that the company has achieved in the last 10 years.
We are increasing our exposure to premium. We have a portfolio with probably an excess of exposure to mainstream position and to value position. It is very clear what we are doing. We are acquiring premium. We are divesting value. This is changing the portfolio of Unilever. We are fundamentally innovating in the premium segment to progressively increase our exposure to premium because the profit pool of our categories is shifting up in every single one of them.
We are making U.S. and India our centers of gravity going forward. After the separation of Ice Cream, U.S. and India will be 32% of our revenue. In reality, 35% after the latest acquisitions that we have done, 21% in U.S., 14% in India. U.S. is very, very important for us. Historically, our U.S. business has been a receiver of innovation for Unilever. Now we are U.S. for U.S. and U.S. for the globe. That's a fundamental change in our strategy.
You can see the evolution of our portfolio in the U.S. 76% of our revenue is now in beauty, well-being, and personal care. Through a combination of significant bolt-on acquisitions, significant disposal, particularly in the value segment, and significant organic growth of our premium brands lined up in the market, the results speak for themselves. We have now four consecutive quarters of volume growth, about 4% in the U.S. We believe we are building the company with the fastest growth footprint in the U.S. in the sector. We are the number seven company in terms of size, but I'm absolutely convinced we are building a structural, fast-growing volume business in the U.S., and customers are starting to see that. What you see on the right of the chart is the result of what is called the advantage survey.
This is 130 retailers giving a scoring to hundreds of companies in the U.S. We were number eight in the last few years. We jumped to number two this year, number one in personal care, number three in beauty, number one in foods. It is a very, very significant way in how the customers are seeing us. They measure us in vision, partnership, execution, and these are the results that we are seeing. This is a fundamental change in Unilever. India is the other anchor of our business. We have incredible positions in India, and we believe that India will be, for Unilever, what China has been for some of our competitors in the last decade. This is the only large exponential volume growth opportunity in the globe, and we have incredible positions.
More than 50% share in hair care, in skin care, in functional food, in dishwash, 45% share in laundry, 37% share in skin cleansing. In all these categories, we are 2% -4% ahead of our closest competitor. We have been growing at 4%, but our ambition is higher than that. The GDP real growth in India should be a good proxy of our volume growth in the future. That's our ambition. We have made decisive changes in terms of leadership there. The leader of the business now has been my Chief Marketing Officer in Beauty. We are very, very confident that with the changes also in the economy of India, I believe that there are some significant stimulus going there. This should be one key growth driver for Unilever in the future.
We know also that the portfolio that brought us to this position in India is not the portfolio that will propel us into the future. That's the reason that we are acquiring new businesses in India, businesses that are in super growth stage. These are two recent acquisitions in India, Minimalist in Skin Care, OZiva in BMS. These two businesses together will be around EUR 100 million by the end of this year and growing. I will not tell you double digits. It's just much more than that. We know also that we need to digitize dramatically our distribution system. We reached EUR 9 million stores in India, EUR 3 million stores directly. You know, we are digitizing. We have the best digital platform for traditional trade coverage in India, and we believe this is a very significant competitive advantage for us.
Let me now move in how we are transforming Unilever into a real marketing and sales machine. There are two fundamental concepts, two fundamental mantras that we are establishing in the company. One is what we call desire at scale. The second is what we call perfect stores offline and online. Desire at scale is anchored in what we call the development of SASSY brands. SASSY, of course, means bold, disruptive, but in this case, it's an acronym for five features that we believe are fundamental to guide our product development strategy and our models of reach and engagement. S of science for superior functionality, A of premium aesthetics, S of sensorial experiences, S of saved by others. Very, very, very important. We really believe that the brands of the future are the ones that will be recommended by peers, and Y for young spirited brands that remain contemporary.
This is what guides both innovation and the models of reach and persuasion. I will show you a video, one minute only, that encapsulates this idea.
The game has changed. Consumers now discover, engage, and decide in the moments. Attention is scarce and must be earned. To win it, we connect through what people love. This is a new marketing model of reach and persuasion. Social platforms are the road. Influencers are the engines. Content is the fuel powered by what's said by others. It's delivering. Vaseline turns what was said by others into a global growth machine. By tapping into millions of social posts, the brand brought the most viral Vaseline jelly hacks into the lab to verify what really worked. Co-created with influencers, the campaign made verified hacks. That's disruptive, shareable, and shoppable. It went viral. Even celebrities and brands jumped in organically to have their say, driving even more cultural buzz and relevance with over 60 million interactions. The result. A 150-year-old brand reimagined for a new generation, driving double-digit volume growth.
When Dove met Crumbl Cookies, it wasn't just sweet. It's proof of what happens when a brand moves at the speed of culture. A collaboration that lives for young-spirited attitude, social by design, to earn attention and drive desire at scale and fast.
This is the collab of the season.
Oh, wow.
The sensorial skin treat no one saw coming. Over 5,000 pieces of content at launch, created by and for the community, not the brand. A social-first sensation that didn't just get people talking, but got them buying. Over 2 billion impressions. Cravable in culture, completely Dove. This is how we build brands people desire with powerful science, premium aesthetics, irresistible sensorial, said by others, and young spirited thinking at the core. This isn't just a framework. It's a growth engine driving deeper connections and bigger impact.
We have a repeatable model. We call it the four Vs: variety of creators, virality of content, velocity of posting, and validity of content. We are applying this in every single brand, everywhere. Dove and Vaseline are excellent examples of that. Dove is our biggest brand. It's a $7 billion revenue brand. It has been growing last year, 8% in volume. This year, close to 5% in volume. Probably the most impressive one is Vaseline. Vaseline is a 155-year-old brand. It was sleeping for many, many years. In the last three years, we have added $400 million into this brand. 10% volume growth in 2024, 11% volume growth this year in volume, in a very, very significant historical legacy brand. We could have not done this without the capabilities and skills that we acquire in prestige beauty and in well-being.
The acquisitions that we have done of Liquid I.V., Nutrafol, Paula's Choice, Tatcha, Hourglass brought a set of capabilities that are very unique, and we are deploying in our core business. Our core business is starting to respond. Of course, we have issues. We have many brands in which we need to fix issues. These are clear examples of where we want to take the vast majority of our portfolio. Let me go into execution and fundamentally how to deliver. Strategy only exists in the markets. Everything starts with a very clear and granular model to really assess how our brands perform in every geography against competition. We have developed a proprietary model based on public information and in proprietary data of Unilever. We call it a missile brand superiority framework.
23 metrics around the six Ps that we measure with absolute clarity, understanding what is the weightage of each of these metrics in any particular geography, brand, cell metric. This is what guides how we operate in every market. This has significant implications when it comes to promotion, place, pricing, and execution in the markets. We have now defined nine very clear metrics for offline execution, 11 metrics for online execution. From price point, relative pricing, share of shelves, share of promotion, location in primary shelves, adjacency in secondary shelves, call to action of every brand in each store, or in online, ratings and reviews, the quality of the content. If I can remember this by memory, imagine my people in the ground. This is what guides every single conversation I have when my people go, when I go to every single market in Unilever.
We also are building three fundamental hubs for what we believe is the strong expansion that we will have in e-commerce. We have already 20% of our business in e-commerce. When you go to Beauty and Wellbeing, it's already 30%. We are making the U.S. the hub for Amazon development. We are making China the hub for TikTok Shop development. We are making India the hub for quick commerce development. We are learning in these markets and rolling out quickly. I'm a great admirer also of what Sam Beveridge's company has done in terms of events and activations. In a context of media fragmentation, this is more important than ever. We are doing it. We are doing it with Liquid I.V. in Lollapalooza. We are doing it with the World Cup next year for Beauty and Personal Care.
We are doing it with Home Care, or we are doing it with NBA, helping mayonnaise booming in Brazil, for example. Events and activations are a very important part of our strategy. We really believe that in-store theater, in-store visibility in physical and online stores is more important than ever. In a context of media fragmentation, how we execute in-store is more important than ever. You have here images of Hellmann's in Brazil, Persil Wonder Wash in the UK, K18 in Sephora, and every brand doing exactly the same. We are expanding our investing in visibility big time. We believe this is a key, key capability and a skill that we have to continue developing in the company. What can you expect from Unilever? I'm finishing in a couple of minutes. We will deliver what we promised for this year. We will deliver between 3% - 5% in our USG.
We expect to deliver an underlying operating margin of at least 18.9%. We delivered 19.3% in the first half of the year. We expect for the remaining company an acceleration of our volume performance in the second half of the year with quarter four even higher than quarter three. We will treat Ice Cream as a discontinued operation from quarter four onward. We expect to close the separation of Ice Cream sometime in November. We have absolute clarity about what is the model that we need to be number, to be top 30 SR in the sector. You know, we need to deliver consistently 2% + volume growth. We need to deliver a modest margin improvement based on a consistent gross margin expansion. We consider gross margin expansion the fundamental financial backbone of our plan, and we will be ruthless on that.
We have four fundamental levers for that: volume growth, mix development, significant interventions in the procurement of key materials in the value chain of key materials, and a ruthless discipline in our control cost management. If we do that, we believe that we can deliver profit growth in hard currency consistently at the level of the best companies in the sector. With that, let me summarize. You can expect that we will go for more beauty, more well-being, more personal care. We will disproportionately invest behind the U.S. and India. We will play to win. We will do it making desire at scale the core of our strategy.
We will build a culture in which playing to win is really recognized with very, very strong incentives for our leadership and ensure that Unilever is never again an insular company. It is a company that is open to the world, that is open for talent coming from outside. With that, we believe that we have a very optimistic future. Thank you very much.
Here we are again, Fernando.
Again.
Thank you for that. I want to pick up on the US because obviously you're a big claim to be the fastest growing or the aspiration to be the fastest growing U.S. CPG Company. Do you think you can still outperform when the comps get much tougher? How are you performing with big retailers that are winning like Walmart and Amazon? Where you're not winning in the US, where you've got issues like US hair care, some brands in prestige like Dermalogica or Paula's Choice, what are you doing to fix those?
Yeah. Our portfolio in the U.S. has been radically transformed. I believe the exposure to Beauty and Personal Care and to Wellbeing is very significant now. We believe that we have a distinct portfolio with a very significant exposure to e-commerce also. Can we continue growing 4% volume consistently across time? I don't know. Do I believe that the 3% volume consistently can be delivered? Yes, I believe. We have put some of our best talent in the U.S., and we have some of our best brands here. We have 45% share in Hellmann's. We have 45% share in Deodorants. We have an incredibly strong Dove. We believe that our portfolio has strength. Of course, we have some what I call speed boats here, Liquid I.V., Nutrafol, some of these brands growing double digits very, very strongly.
We are very confident in the portfolio that we have built, and we are very confident in the capabilities that we are building in the country. I believe probably of this presentation, one of the most important charts is the one that is how customers are scoring us in the U.S. relative to peers. This is a significant improvement in the perception that customers have about Unilever. We are growing very fast with Walmart. We are growing close to 20% with Amazon in the U.S. We have not seen any stocking. Everybody's talking about this stocking. Really, I have not seen anything. I have tried to find it, but really, I have not found this stocking here. We are confident that we have built the portfolio. What is very important is I will not deploy a single penny in M&A outside the U.S. and outside India.
The role of the U.S. is very, very important because I feel the U.S. is the only market that offers both local critical mass to scale brands very, very rapidly. It gives you a hub for the rollout of international brands. I believe strategically for Unilever, in a digital world without borders, having a set of powerful global brands born and with a scale in the U.S. is very, very important.
In terms of the second half of the year, Fernando, I think you did 3.8% in the second quarter. Can you talk a little bit about your confidence about the acceleration in the second half versus the second quarter? Do you think Q4 will be stronger than Q3? Will it be even in the back half? Maybe the big geographies, Indonesia, China, and Latin America are the three big swing factors for the back half. Can you maybe touch on those?
Yeah, you know, we will treat Ice Cream as a discontinued operation in quarter four. Probably it's better to refer to the remaining company. I see acceleration of our volume in the second half versus the first half, and I see a quarter four that is better than quarter three. I'm very confident that that will happen. I feel in Indonesia, we have fixed the fundamentals of the business. I don't believe that we have fixed the long-standing issues. We have a very strong local competitor. They are operating usually at 20% discount, so you have to justify a 25% premium all the time. That requires a quality of innovation that I believe we have not had in the past, but we are improving. We have seen, since February this year, our run rates improving consistently in Indonesia. In China, there is a big channel shift.
As you know, I spent one week recently there. I feel quarter four in particular, we will start to see significant progress in China. Part of that is comparator, but also we have made significant changes in the distribution system. We are putting some particular changes in how we run some of our brands, particularly the three key brands we have there that are CLEAR, Lansam, and Vaseline. LATAM, we are having a relatively difficult time. I believe for the rest of the year, it will be tough. There is a macro context there. Mexico has been seriously affected by the uncertainty on tariffs. Brazil now has been, you know, the famous 50% tariffs is affecting a bit the economy. We have scored some own goals, and I need to recognize that, particularly in laundry. We price ourselves off the market. It has been very volatile.
The exchange rate went from 5% - 6.40%. Now it's at 5.40%. We price ourselves a bit outside. We have corrected, but this correction takes some time to implement. Particularly in the deodorant category, that is very important for us, there has been some growth of what we call contact applicator, the roll-ons and sticks. These formats have a revenue per use that is significantly lower than aerosol. I believe we have promoted a bit excessively these formats. We are gaining a ton of share. We are gaining close to 250 basis points share in Brazil, but we have affected the market growth due to the format change. That's something that we need to rebalance. I don't expect Latin America to be a great contributor in the second half, but our Latin American business is structurally very strong.
We don't see any fundamental competitive issue beyond the laundry issue in Brazil that we are correcting. From next year onward, it should be back to normal.
India, your second biggest market, you've got Priya in place now as the Head of HOL. You've stepped up growth in the second quarter to 5%, 4% volume. What's your expectation medium term? What should India volume look like, and what are the building blocks to accelerate it further?
As I said, I feel our position in India is incredibly strong. I always say that when I grow 7% my hair business, I add my main competitor in here. That happens in many other categories. Priya is a person I trust 100%. I brought her as my Chief Marketing Officer of Beauty and Wellbeing when I ran the division. Then she succeeded me in Beauty. I believe Priya will be a very important leader for Hindustan Unilever because she knows India deeply. She ran their Home Care, Beauty, Personal Care. I believe differently to what has been our previous leaders in India. She has generated a view of the world with her experience as a global leader that is very important for the India of the future.
Big companies like Hindustan Unilever can fall in the trap of becoming very insular and think that the model of the past is the one that will propel you into the future. The economy in India should be growing 5% - 6% real GDP growth. I expect that in the long run, we should align our volume growth with that kind of level. In the short term, our focus is to try to get consistent growth in the level that we deliver in the quarter two. That's our ambition. Let's see how the market evolves. The government has taken some important measures, the central bank also. There has been some stimulus in the economy. There is food deflation in India. That is important because it puts money in the pockets of hundreds of millions of people. We have made significant changes in our leadership team.
Also, not only Priya, but we have brought in Foods, the CEO of Britannia. That is one of the most successful food companies in India. We have brought a CFO, the CEO of Hero Motorcycles. That is one of the most important automotive companies in India and with an incredible track record. We have put a top-notch team there. We are very confident about the future.
Final question, Fernando, before we do the breakout. Desirability at scale works well in Beauty and Wellbeing and Personal Care. What about foods? How do you do desirability at scale in Knorr or Hellmann's or Unilever Food Solutions? How much volume can you get out of foods? Would you maybe kind of contrast Hellmann's versus Knorr versus Unilever Food Solutions, the three big pillars? How do you think about that?
Yeah, I don't believe that desirability is a beauty concept. I feel desirability in foods is fundamentally incredible indulgence, for example. Desirability in home care is premium experiences. The importance of fragrances, for example, in home care is bigger than ever. I believe the concept of desire at scale is a concept that travels across the organization. Packaging aesthetics, sensorials, that's something that works in every category. Regarding foods, I believe we have one of the best foods companies in the world. If you look at a brand like Hellmann's, it's probably in one of the most dynamic verticals of foods, like it is condiments. If you look at what are the multiples that some condiments companies have, I believe this is not reflected in the valuation of Unilever. Hellmann's is a machine. We have a 45% share here, 55% share in Brazil, a very strong share in Europe also.
I feel Knorr is a bit a more difficult animal because it's a bit less consistent. I don't believe that the quality of our marketing in Knorr has been at the level of the quality of our marketing in Hellmann's. My challenge to the Knorr team when I visited them recently was, hey, guys, you have to be the Dove of food. You have to look like Dove looks today. That is very different from how Dove used to look three, four years ago. There is a lot of work to be done in Knorr, and we are not there yet. The other important point about our food business is we have a very strong food service component there. That food service component, that is close to 30% of our food business, has 30% in China, 30% in the U.S., with huge potential of doors expansion.
Do I believe that foods can grow volume at the level of beauty and personal care? The answer is not. Do I believe that foods can grow volume? Yes. Do I believe that our food business should be one of the best performing companies of foods in volume growth? No doubt.
Okay, I was going to squeeze one more in on influencers. How many influencers do you now have? You know, you said you want influencers everywhere in India and Brazil. How do you, what are the guardrails on that? Does it increase risk?
We are building a massive infrastructure, I feel. In our fireside chat, I said I want one influencer in every ZIP Code of India. It has 15,000. We have now 12,000. In the U.S., Dove, I have 8,000. In Liquid I.V., U.S., I have 17,000. This is something that we are measuring in every single market, in every single brand. Risk profile is higher, of course, because in the past, you had absolute control of your communication. You were putting an ad on TV. It was absolutely under your control. What is the option? Staying with that model is not an option. You have to live with a bit more risk. Of course, we have a very serious screening process of influencers in every market. I believe a company like Unilever, with the infrastructure we have, that's a potential competitive advantage versus smaller players. We can put that infrastructure in place.
Other people cannot.
OKAY, thank you, Fernando.
Thank you, Warren.
There's going to be a breakout with Unilever next door. If you want to join that, do move across. Here, we're going to be doing the Nestlé fireside chat with Anna Manz. Thank you.
Thank you.