Unilever picks Rotterdam over London for its HQ but insists it's not about Brexit

Goodbye then Unilever.

The Anglo Dutch consumer products giant, with headquarters in both nations, has settled on The Netherlands for its home base going forward, despite the British Government’s frantic efforts to keep it.

At this point regular readers might expect me to immediately cry “Brexit”.

But instead, I’m going to try something that Brexiteers might regard as revolutionary given the way that they usually comport themselves. I’m going to be honest.

Unilever has been under pressure to simplify its corporate structure for some time now. That pressure intensified in the wake of the failed tilt at the company taken by America’s Kraft Foods.

A single head office at the top of a single legal entity makes things simpler, and cheaper, for the business. It is, therefore, in theory, better for big shareholders, which have never liked the Unilever-style dual headed creatures that have been a peculiar feature of Anglo-Dutch businesses.

The big institutions will therefore be pleased, which should make life easier for a Unilever board that has been taking some heat over recent results.

All that being the case, this might have been on the cards even had Britain not chosen to shoot itself in both feet with a fully loaded shotgun. Rotterdam still might have won its corporate Champions League clash with London.

But, it's nonetheless fair to ask whether Brexit played a role.

We can safely ignore the UK Government’s denials given its pathological inability to be honest with the British people about anything relating to the subject.

With Unilever it’s rather different. Boss Paul Polman was similarly unequivocal about Brexit. The company’s official position is that the decision was down to more of the share capital being held Dutch in side of the company, which is a blandly technical explanation.

Unilever has also been keen to stress that the UK gets two two of its three new operating divisions. The Government has been keener still, and is now most unlikely to propose anything that might impact on sales of Marmite or Dove, or any of the other myriad of things Unilever makes.

However, let’s be clear here: Citing the HQ in Rotterdam puts Unilever's board much closer to the centre of gravity of the much bigger European single market than it would have been were it to have stayed in London. Europe’s leaders, who have far more influence over sales of Marmite and Dove, and on the company’s future prosperity than do ours, will be pleased.

If Brexit really wasn’t a factor, if it wasn’t taken into consideration, wasn’t even discussed as part of the process of taking a rather important decision, then I might be inclined, were I an investor, to wonder whether the people who took it were doing their jobs properly.

Regardless, London emerges diminished as a business centre. This might only result in the relocation of a small number of roles. But corporate HQs tend to have fairly substantial architectures surrounding them and Unilever's architecture of consultants, and advisors and other service providers, will also shift.

It is disingenuous to portray this as anything other than a loss to Britain.

As Lee Wild, head of equity strategy at Interactive Investor, opined: “Making the main headquarters in Rotterdam will hurt Theresa May at a key point in Brexit negotiations with the EU.”

Indeed it will. And she will be hurt by more like this in future.