The Uni-leader

When Lebanon-based Fattal Holding, agents and distributors for numerous global brands in six countries of the Middle East and North Africa region, celebrated the 80th anniversary of their partnership with consumer goods multinational Unilever, the occasion was auspicious enough to bring Unilever Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman to Beirut. Executive used the rare opportunity to squeeze an interview into Polman’s hyper-busy schedule.    E   I would like to start with a macroeconomic question. Multinational producers of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) are affected by global economic challenges more and earlier than other types of multinationals. How is Unilever dealing with macroeconomic challenges across the globe? At this point in history, whether we like it or not, we have to deal with an economic system that produces slow growth and many companies are challenged by that. In Europe there is deflation and a geopolitical environment which is seeing more conflicts