01 UNILEVER Website : www . unilever . co . uk Unilever as it is known today was formed in 1930 and since then it has become known as the seventh most valuable company in Europe . Unilever ’ s products vary across food and beverages , cleaning agents and personal care products , and it owns 400 brands in total , including Knorr , Lipton and Ben & Jerry ’ s . Thirteen of Unilever ’ s brands each achieve sales of over € 1bn ($ 1.18bn ) per year . Some 57 % of its business is in emerging markets and it employs 169,000 people , with 46 % of Unilever managers being women . Each year , the company invests around $ 1.17bn in research and development , particularly in innovation and customer research . This has helped it earn a composite score of 6.39 from Gartner , with 10.00 for sustainability .