Contract with Accenture

Unilever PLC
10 April 2006


                      UNILEVER AWARDS OUTSOURCING CONTRACT

                                  TO ACCENTURE


Unilever today announced that it has awarded an outsourcing contract to
Accenture to manage parts of its European IT operation. This follows the
announcement in December on outsourcing its financial transactional services to
IBM.


The outsourcing programme is part of the company's 'One Unilever' initiatives to
increase leverage of its scale, improve its marketplace competitiveness, deliver
functional excellence, and create a more competitive cost-structure allowing it
to focus on its consumers and customers.


Under the IT contract, Unilever will outsource to Accenture, the development,
implementation and support of its European regional applications. The intention
is to start the programme from 1st July 2006.


Unilever intends to minimise the impact of people by transferring staff to
Accenture, early retirement, re-training through the Accenture Academy,
exploring alternatives roles, natural attrition and through voluntary
programmes.


Unilever has a great deal of experience of managing change issues and, as well
as dealing with people issues sensitively and professionally, it is committed to
working closely with the relevant employee representatives and works councils.


Neil Cameron, Unilever's chief information officer, said: 'This outsourcing deal
represents a major strategic choice for Unilever. With a significant business
change agenda ahead of us, we believe that partnering with a world class
provider such as Accenture gives us greater flexibility and more certainty on
delivery of the key enabling IT system platforms.


'This deal allows us to create a simpler, more agile European IT function to
better support Unilever's growth agenda.'


'This contract should help provide Unilever with a higher degree of certainty
around the cost and timing necessary to create its new European business IT
platform, which is expected to drive improved business results including
increased efficiencies, reduced costs and greater standardization,' said John
Zealley, managing partner of Accenture's Consumer Goods & Services Practice in
Europe.


'Accenture's experience in delivering cross border IT programs should enable us
to deliver consistently in Unilever's key markets, providing Unilever with the
flexibility it needs to meet its goal of becoming ever more competitive and
high-performing.'


Contacts:

Tim Johns, Vice President, Global Media Relations

Unilever, Tel: [phone]

Tanno Massar, Head of NV and Europe Media Relations

Unilever, Tel: [phone]

Trevor Gorin, Head of PLC and UK Media Relations

Unilever, Tel: [phone]

Peter Thomas, Media and Analyst Relations

Accenture, Tel: [phone]


                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange