Unilever apologizes and wants to rebuild confidence

Unilever admitted that he erred in the case of contamination with caustic soda Apple Juice soy-based Ades, also specify exactly what were the faults committed and apologized to consumers. The company, however, does not speak today in the event of loss of the market, as a result of a rejection of the trademark, and hopes that the long relationship of trust with consumers to re-buy the line of drinks. A report released on Friday by the Superintendence of health surveillance of Minas Gerais reported that, in place of the juice, the units were filled with caustic soda and water.
"It was a mistake. A major error. And we have to apologize first to 12 consumers who suffered light burns in the mouth. A hard time to consumers that they don't deserve. Reasons why we are constrained and we apologize to everyone, "said the President of Unilever in Brazil, Argentine Fernando Fernandez, in an interview in the early evening of Friday, at the company's headquarters in São Paulo. In addition to Fernandez, were present in the room at the time of the interview three Vice-Chairmen of the Group and communications advisors.
Fernandez said that the matrix is in keeping with the fact that "closely" and stated that it is not yet possible to speak at fall in sales and loss of market share of trademark Ades. All Ades is off the shelves of stores from Grupo Pão de Açúcar, probe and Walmart and there may be a rejection of the consumer to the brand Ades said experts last week. Among the competitors of Unilever are companies Wow and Yoki. "This problem happened a few days ago and we do not have the dimensions still on sales, but the consumer Ades was faithful to the brand for all these years and we will be working to rebuild this trust".
The Chairman of Unilever said he understands the decision of retail chains to remove all the products from shelves, as reported the value last Thursday. "I understand that when some vehicles have spoken of the need for withdrawal of Ades, some stores pulled out [all] Ades. I understand the caution from the shops ".
The company said it has taken steps to change internal processes. The samples for control will be more rigid, "quarantine" (the period that the product is in the company before distribution) will increase from seven to 10 days, and will be made daily issues of product quality.
The command of the company detailed how the error happened. On the last day February 25, in one of the 11 production lines of Pouso Alegre (MG), the manufacture of a batch of Ades was finished and began automatically clean the machine with a 2.5% concentration solution of caustic soda. "After batch production, automatically becomes an afterthought. What operator did not realize was that the line had just finished filling the product and entered a cleaning process. The official put the machine into operation for 80 seconds with the cleaning solution by turning on the equipment, "said the Vice President of Unilever's supplies, Jose Negrete. Questioned, the company has not reported if the operator was fired.
The decision to put the machine to produce was human failure, and failure was operating the equipment have come back to work. A new factor contributed to that packages arrive at retail. "The sampling gathering [to test] which should have occurred has not been done by the person who was on the line," said Negrete. The 80 seconds of failure produced 96 contaminated juices. The company produces 400 million units of Ades.
Without samples to check, Unilever said it only learned of the problem through an email sent to a consumer on the night of March 7, Thursday. On Monday, 11, the company collected sample in this consumer, the next day was done the lab test, and on day 13, the first notice to the market. Between Wednesday and Friday, the company failed to find new batches contaminated-were found 46 containers with problems, less than half the batch of 96.
"This number of 96 is the maximum that can be achieved. Some people may already have scrapped the product, "said Fernandez. Four thousand employees work today to try to find the remaining packaging. Fernandez does not believe that there was failure in the communication of the fact to the market. Consultants understand that the company did not come quickly to apologize for the fact. "I talked with the TVs, gave interview. And published three press releases ", said the Executive.