"Low-carb fad slims Unilever figures
By Rosie Murray-West (Filed: 03/05/2003)


Unilever shareholders yesterday became the latest to lose weight on the controversial Atkins Diet, but unfortunately the pounds dropped from their investment, rather than their waistlines.

The multinational company yesterday blamed the latest diet fad, which involves drastically limiting your carbohydrate intake, for disappointing first-quarter figures. The company also cited the late timing of Easter and a "spike in retailer de-stocking" for missing its self-imposed earnings guidelines.

Unilever owns Slimfast, the meal-replacement diet brand, which includes milkshakes, pasta, soups and snack bars. Unilever chairman Niall Fitzgerald, a fitness fanatic and marathon runner, is known to use Slimfast products himself.

Its meal replacements products don't fit in with the Atkins Diet, and a spokesman admitted yesterday that the company had "taken its eye off the market" while producing new Slimfast products. "Meanwhile the low-carb fad gained momentum," the spokesman said.

The Atkins Diet has been popularised by celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt. Its inventor, Dr Robert Atkins died from a blood clot in the brain last month at the age of 73.

A Unilever spokesman wouldn't comment on whether the company had Atkins-style products in development. Slimfast sales declined in the quarter, and the spokesman said that the company would not meet its earlier growth targets for the product this year. "



Looks like reporters still cannot stop calling Atkins a 'fad' diet.