Richa Naidu & Pushkala Aipaka

LONDON (Reuters), -Unilever revealed Tuesday its plans to eliminate approximately 1,500 jobs from management in a restructuring aimed towards easing shareholder concerns following a failed bid for takeover and claims that an activist investor owned a share of the consumer goods company.

Dove soap maker and Magnum Ice Cream manufacturer employs around 149,000 people globally. Tuesday’s revamp created five product-focused divisions: beauty and wellness, personal care, health, nutrition and icecream.

The move, which Unilever (NYSE:) said has been in the works over the past year, echoes the reshaping by arch-rival Procter & Gamble (NYSE:) (P&G) three years ago https://www.reuters.com/article/us-procter-gamble-strategy-idUKKCN1ND37M when it created six similar business units, in its biggest reorganisation in two decades.

Alan Jope, Unilever CEO said that “moving to five categories-focused business group will enable us be more responsive to consumers and channel trends with crystal-clear accountability to deliver,”

Unilever, whose shares have fallen about 13% over the past year, last week effectively abandon https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/unilever-says-it-will-not-increase-50-bln-pound-offer-gsk-consumer-business-2022-01-19ed plans to buy GlaxoSmithKline’s (NYSE:) consumer healthcare business for 50 billion pounds ($67 billion).

GSK rejected its proposal. Investors criticized the idea as an expensive and dangerous distraction that would not allow it to deal with urgent challenges such as rising inflation in emerging markets or weakness in healthy food.

Days later, reports also emerged activist investor Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners had been building a stake in Unilever, mirroring a previous investment and push for change at P&G and other consumer goods companies. Trian did not confirm that Unilever had been acquired by Trian Partners.

At P&G, Trian criticized the Tide detergent maker’s falling market share, low organic sales growth, aging brands, bureaucracy and excessive structural costs, among other things.

“Unilever happens to be here right now,” Barclays (LON:) analyst Warren Ackerman said. “Peltz tried Mondelez, Heinz and PepsiCo (NASDAQ) – all of the consumer goods companies.”

He added that investors may feel Unilever places too much emphasis on the environment and social strategy and less on its core business.

Terry Smith, a British fund manager, criticized Unilever Thursday in a letter to Fundsmith LLP shareholders. He called the loss of GSK a “near-death experience” and urged the company’s leadership to concentrate on improving performance.

Smith was critical of Unilever’s “penchant for corporate gobbledegook that substitutes for effective action.”

Unilever, which can trace its roots back to an 1880s soap company in Britain, stated that the restructuring will not have any impact on factory workers.