The International Top 30.

1. Unilever

United Kingdom

www.unilever.com

Sales: $21.6 billion

Sales: $21.6 billion for home and personal care. Corporate sales: $50 billion. Net income: $2.3 billion.

Key Personnel: Patrick Cescau, group chief executive; Rudy Markham, chief financial officer; Kees van der Graaf, president, Europe; Ralph Kugler, president, home and personal care; Vindi Banga, president, food; John Rice, president, Americas; Harish Manwani, president, Asia/Africa; Sandy Ogg, chief human resources officer.

Major Products: Personal care--Axe/Lynx, Rexona/Sure and Degree deodorants; Dove, Caress, Lux and Lever 2000 soaps; Pond's and Vaseline skin care products; Organics, Salon Selectives, SunSilk, Suave and ThermaSilk hair care products; Close-Up and Signal oral care products. Household products--Ala, All, Omo and Wisk laundry detergents; Comfort and Snuggle fabric softeners; Domestos, Cif, DiverseyLever professional cleaning products.

New Products: Dove Care & Radiance hair care, Dove Massage body wash, Dove Foam conditioner, Dove Radiant Silk antiperspirant/deodorant; Axe/Lynx Unlimited shower gel and Degree for Men.

Comments: Simplify. Simplify. When corporations started streamlining their structures decades ago, Unilever stuck to its guns, maintaining dual headquarters and chairmen in the UK and The Netherlands. Now, however, things are about to change.

Nearly a year ago, the company abandoned its dual chairman/CEO structure. Patrick Cescau is the group chief executive and leads a new executive team that replaced the executive committee and divisions. Since April, his new team also consists of three regional presidents (Europe, Americas and Asia/Africa), two category presidents (Foods and HPC), a chief financial officer, and a chief human resources officer.

Ultimately, the company may decide to eliminate its dual corporate headquarters structure in favor of one locale.

As part of its simplification plans, in July, Unilever completed the sale of its prestige fragrance business, Unilever Cosmetics International (UCI), to Coty. Unilever received $800 million and has an opportunity for further deferred payments contingent upon future sales. The sale of UCI is fully in line with Unilever's strategy to focus on its core categories.

All these moves are part of a plan to get Unilever up and growing again. The company recently concluded its five-year "Path to Growth" plan and candidly admitted in its annual report, "we are not where we set out to be."

Although the company successfully simplified its portfolio by selling off or eliminating unsuccessful brands and increasing margins and capital efficiency, Unilever was unable to achieve the level of growth it had expected. Why? Because "we have not been fast enough in reacting to toughening margin conditions and increased competitive challenges," the company admitted.

In other words, Unilever, like so many other household and personal care manufacturers, is still trying to play catch up to Procter & Gamble.

Last year, corporate sales fell 6% in local currency. The decline was blamed, primarily, on the strong euro. At constant rates of exchange, turnover fell 2.1%, which the company said was due to sales of business units. The biggest disposals included Unilever's chemical business in India, certain household brands in North America and an edible oil business in Mexico.

Last year, home and personal care sales fell 5%. The company said the business came under pressure from a combination of a sharp slowdown in market growth and a significant rise in the level and intensity of competition.

In Western Europe, Unilever maintained shares while categories contracted as major chains lowered prices to compete with discounters. Market growth also slowed in North America. In Asia, particularly India and Japan, heated competition put a crimp in sales and profits. The good news came from Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, where Unilever's brands are well received by consumers and improving economies provided an additional boost.

More specifically, Unilever said home care volume rose 1.8% in 2004, but sales dropped 6% to $8.4 billion. Omo, Unilever's No. 1 laundry brand, racked up strong sales as it gained share in key markets such as Argentina, China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Other brands that performed well included Radiant and Comfort.

Personal care sales declined 5%, but Unilever maintained that currency exchange accounted for the most of the decline. In fact, the personal care business had underlying sales growth of 2.1% last year, buoyed by market share improvement in Europe and Africa, the Middle East and Turkey.

By product category, deodorants posted double-digit gains, helping Unilever become the category leader in 15 of the top 20 markets around the world. Just two years after its debut, Axe now holds a 13% share in North America. In Latin America, a new fragrance variant helped boost sales of body sprays. In Europe, Rexona was relaunched with much success.

Hair care sales declined due to intense competition in Asia, particularly in Japan. At the same time, skin cleansing sales in North America continued to disappoint Unilever.

In oral care, Signal and Close Up continued to build share in several European markets.

For the first quarter of 2005, sales rose 2% to more than $11.5 billion, helped along by the addition of several selling days in most regions. Personal care sales jumped 5.2%, but home care sales declined 2%.

Mr. Cescau was pleased with the company's first quarter start.

"We are making progress on the plans to improve top line performance," he said in a statement. "The first stage was a step-up in market competitiveness, starting from the fourth quarter of last year. I am encouraged that we have had two consecutive quarters of growth and that aggregate market shares are now stabilizing."

Two quarters isn't much of a track record, but it is something to build on as 2005 moves to a close.

2. L'Oreal

France

www.loreal.com

Sales: $18 billion

Sales: $18 billion. Net income: $2 billion.

Key Personnel: Lindsay Owen-Jones, chairman and chief executive officer; Beatrice Dautresme, executive vice president, corporate communications and external affairs; Jean-Francois Grollier, executive vice president, research and development; Marcel Lafforgue, executive vice president, production and technology; Jean-Jacques Lebel, president, professional products; Christian Mulliez, executive vice president, administration and finance; Patrick Rabain, president, consumer products; Geoff Skingsiley, executive vice president, human resources; Gilles Weill, president, luxury products.

Major Products: Hair care, skin care, sun care, color cosmetics, toiletries and fragrances marketed under such brand names as Artec, Biotherm, Cacheral, Carson, Helena Rubinstein, Lancome, Lanvin, La Roche-Posay, L'Oreal, L'Oreal Paris, L'Oreal Professionnel, L'Oreal Perfection, L'Oreal Kids, Kerastase, Redken, Inne, Laboratoires Garnier, Giorgio Armani, Harley Davidson, Matrix, Maybelline, Jade, Gemey Paris, Jean-Louis David, Dop, Cadonet, Jacques Dessange, Ralph Lauren, Redken, Soft Sheen.Carson and Vichy.

New Products: L'Oreal Professional--Platinum hair color, Redken for Men, Keratase Reflection, Serie Expert Volume Extreme and Shine Curl; Consumer--Happyderm moisturizer, Invincible Kiss Proof lipstick, Garnier Color Naturals hair color and Garnier Mininurse Fresh 24-hour moisturizer, Maybelline XXL mascara, SoftSheen.Carson Optimum Oil Therapy; Luxury--Armani Black Code, Biotherm Line Peel, Ralph Lauren Blue, Helena Rubinstein Lash Queen, Lancome Resurface Peel, Aquafusion and Gucci Westman, Vichy Flexilift Teint; Liposyne draining treatment and Novadiol Anti-Age Spot.

Comments: Corporate sales rose 3.6% last year, and net income improved just 0.1%. Cosmetics, which account for approximately 98% of company sales, increased 3.8%. Sales of dermatology products declined 4.3%. Within the cosmetics division, consumer products represented 54.5% of sales, followed by luxury products (24.8%), professional products (14.1%) and active cosmetics (6%).

By product category, hair care accounted for 24.9% of sales, followed by skin care (22.9%), makeup (21.4%), hair color (17.2%), perfumes (10.4%) and other (3.2%).

By region, western Europe represents 51.4% of sales, followed by North America (26.5%) and the rest of world (22.1%).

L'Oreal said sales within the professional products division received a boost from the launch of a variety of products including Platinum hair color, Redken for Men, Keratase Reflection and the introduction of Matrix into China, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Also, the relaunch of the Tecni.art styling line received a boost with the incorporation of Artec, a recently-acquired U.S. brand. In addition, L'Oreal continued to expand the Serie Expert hair care brand throughout the world and built on its popularity with the introduction of Volume Extreme and Shine Curl. Redken's sales surged 14%, further solidifying its No. 2 position in North America.

Consumer product sales posted big volume gains due to strong expansion in new and emerging markets such as China, Russia, Brazil and India. North American sales rose too and market share figures improved in Europe. Garnier continues to build a loyal following in North America and the division posted market share gains in Western Europe in skin care and hair colorants. Some notable standouts include L'Oreal Paris, which remains the No. 1 cosmetics brand in the world with sales of about $5 billion. During the year Garnier acquired Mininurse, China's No. 3 skin care brand, based on volume. Also in 2004, L'Oreal acquired Yue-Sai, a leading cosmetics brand in China.

Although sales gains for Maybelline slowed in Western Europe and North America, the brand remained the world's best-selling makeup. In fact, Maybelline posted sales gains ranging from 20-50% in countries such as Turkey, Poland, Russia, China, Mexico and Australia.

SoftSheen.Carson got off to a slow start in 2004, but sales surged 10% in the second half, with particularly strong (20%) gains in South Africa. The company's internet and mail order business, Club des Createurs de Beaute, reported a 70% jump in sales.

The luxury products division reported modest gains in Western Europe due to tough economic conditions. But that was by far the weakest link in L'Oreal's luxury chain. The good news was that sales rose in North America, Latin America, travel retail and Eastern Europe, as well as China and southern Asia. Within the division, fragrance accounted for 38.8% of sales, followed by skin care, 36.1% and makeup, 25.1%.

By brand, Lancome retained its spot as the No. 1 luxury cosmetics brand in the world and posted strong growth in China (up 71%) and Latin America (up 22%). Biotherm recorded a 9.2% gain, due to strong increases in Asia (up 24.9%) and Latin America (up 25.6%).

The active cosmetics segment scored a double-digit sales gain, helped by strong demand for Vichy hypoallergenic products.

For the first half of 2005, corporate sales increased 3.5% to $8.9 billion.

"We have seen a…