BRIEFLY / CONSUMER PRODUCTS : Unilever Confirms It Will Cut Product Lines

Unilever, the world’s biggest maker of household products, confirmed that it will focus on 400 leading brands, eliminating 1,200 others, in a move to cut costs by $1.4 billion within three years. The Dutch-British company said it expects to lift its operating margins by half a percentage point in each of the next five years as it narrows its marketing, research and production. Grouping its products under fewer names will allow Unilever to buy bigger batches of ingredients and packaging more cheaply and run plants more efficiently, helping it grow faster than competitors, company executives told analysts. Unilever will decide which brands to eliminate in about six months. The news comes as the company is finishing a drive to sell peripheral businesses such as chemicals and seeds, and concentrate production at fewer and larger plants. That plan, which has seen Unilever close about a quarter of its factories in the last five years, has raised its operating margin to 10.6% last year, from 8.7% in 1994. Unilever’s American depositary receipts fell 63 cents to close at $38.44 on the NYSE.