Former Unilever Manager Is Arrested in China

A senior manager at the China operations of Anglo-Dutch consumer goods maker Unilever is in police custody after being accused of helping a local firm produce fake Unilever products, a company spokesman has confirmed. The case underlines the flagrant abuse of trade mark by local manufacturers in China, many of which are turning to company insiders to help churn out fake famous-name products, sometimes even using genuine packaging. Brand name rip-offs, a scourge costing international manufacturers hundreds of millions of dollars a year in China, has already provoked foreign companies to band together in an attempt to fight the counterfeiters.

Makers of large volume consumer goods, such as Unilever, are particularly vulnerable to the counterfeiters, experts say. With companies now having to be suspicious of their own employees and contractors, the problem appears to have reached new proportions.

The former Unilever employee has been arrested and the counterfeiting operations closed down “within days of the discovery,” Paul Neely, Unilever China’s corporate development director told reporters. The former manager is alleged to have used his knowledge of the detergent market in China to help sell fake Unilever and other brand products. Unilever markets OMO washing powder in China.