5 Surprising Companies Going Green
When one thinks of green businesses, names like Whole Foods and Patagonia spring to mind. But there are other big firms whose major environmental efforts may surprise you.
Unilever
Markets Cautious Ahead of Debt Ceiling Vote
Stock markets traded cautiously on Wednesday ahead of a U.S. vote on raising the nation's borrowing limit temporarily. The House is set to vote on a motion to increase the nation's $16.4 trillion borrowing ceiling for three months.
Hormel Foods to Buy Skippy Peanut Butter for $700 Million
Hormel Foods is buying the Skippy peanut butter product line from Unilever for approximately $700 million as it looks to strengthen its business overseas and branch out beyond its meat business that includes Spam.
Burger King Has a Soft Spot for Chickens
Burger King may have to shell out a bit more, but it has committed to switching over to using only eggs laid by cage-free chickens. It's not just humane -- it's good business, and it may push corporate egg producers to follow BK's lead.
What Mark Zuckerberg Can Learn From Ben and Jerry
Facebook's first few days as a public company have been a rocky road. Moving ahead, Mark Zuckerberg would do well to recall the lesson of two other iconoclastic company founders: Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. The tale of Ben & Jerry bears a bracing similarity to his own.
The 11 Brands With the Most Loyal Customers
Brand loyalty: It's why we buy a lot of what we buy, and any company that sells anything is striving to induce that feeling in its potential customers. Last week, research consultancy Brand Keys revealed which American companies do it best.
Why Ben & Jerry's Is Raising Eyebrows
Ben & Jerry's, the progressive ice cream brand with the hippie ethos, has announced its support for Occupy Wall Street. But the free ice cream it donated Tuesday was cold comfort to some protesters, who wondered how a brand owned by a mammoth multinational conglomerate can genuinely support their anti-corporate message.
Unilever CEO Expects to Catch P&G in Five Years
Unilever CEO Paul Polman recently admitted that his company had grown "too little" over the past 10 to 15 years, but said he expects it to catch up with rivals such as Procter & Gamble within the next five years. Is it a realistic goal?
Unilever Bulks Up in China With an Eye on the Future
Unilever, the second largest consumer goods company in the world, recently announced plans to build one of its largest production bases in China. Unilever already has sales in China worth over $20 billion and anticipates a substantial increase in this figure in the years ahead.
What Companies Will Quench Japan's Thirst for Safe Water?
The Japanese are stockpiling bottled water and other drinks after being warned that unsafe levels of radioactive iodine had been found in Tokyo's tap water. That moved investors to jump on the stocks of beverage makers, but only a few companies are in a position to meet Japan's rising demand.
