Category: Civil society

The health impact of food and drink products on consumers has been rising up the agenda of investors in recent years. Last year, for instance, campaign group ShareAction, backed by a coalition of seven institutional investors, including Dutch asset manager Robeco, filed the first ever health-based shareholder proposal at a FTSE 100 company, asking Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket, to ramp up disclosure and set targets on healthier product sales amid the growing obesity crisis. 

The escalation at Tesco followed a two-year engagement and prompted the supermarket to commit to increasing sales of healthier food and drink products across its business – resulting in ShareAction withdrawing its proposal. 

Following the success at Tesco, the London-based non-profit is back again this year with an even larger group of investors but at a target which might surprise some: consumer goods giant Unilever, which this week failed in its bid to buy GSK…