The Anglo-Dutch consumer-goods concern said the move is aimed at cutting costs, boosting sales and simplifying its supply chain over the next five years.

Unilever didn't specify which brands would go in the portfolio restructuring, but a spokesman in London said the company wants to focus on around 400 brands from its stable of 1,600, with a core group of so-called power brands that are known globally or regionally, instead of local or national brands.

These 400 brands, which include Magnum Ice Cream, Vaseline Skin Cream and Thermosilk Shampoo, accounted for almost 90 per cent of Unilever's annual revenue of 27 billion pounds ($43.75 billion) in 1998.

``We want to put all our resources behind the 400 brands with worldwide reach, and the others will simply fall away,'' the spokesman explained.

The spokesman added thatthe remaining brands gradually will lose advertising and marketing support and will eventually be sold, withdrawn from the market or consolidated into larger brands.

Unilever, the world's largest maker of ice cream and margarine, said redirecting marketing spending would lead to growth rates of between 6 per cent and 8 per cent annually for the 400 brands, compared with current targets of 4 per cent. Savings from pruning the brands would amount to 1 billion pounds within three years, the company said.

Other consumer-goods companies also are trimming their portfolios, after an acquisition binge over the past two decades in which they gobbled up companies with smaller, local brands. Now, they want to leverage the power of global brand names to reduce advertising costs and to launch brand extensions or families.

Earlier this year, Nestle SA of Switzerland said it is selling its European frozen-foods division and launching Nescafe instant coffee as a global ``coffee beverage'' brand with a unified marketingmessage. Similarly, food-and-drink company Diageo PLC is selling national spirits brands to focus on global labels like Smirnoff vodka.

For Unilever, the success of Dove -- with its image of purity -- is an example of how a power brand can go global and boost earnings with the right combination of promotion and marketing. In 1991, Dove was in 13 markets; today it is sold in 75 markets and is the leading cleansing-products brand in the world.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, it reduced the number of advertised brands from 20 to seven in 1995; these seven brands accounted for 70 per cent of sales in 1998 compared with 40 per cent in 1995.

Shares of Unilever slipped eight pence to 588 pence in London and lost 55 European cents to 66.25 euros ($68.62) in Amsterdam.

The Wall Street Journal