Dubai Industries &Exports, in partnership with Unilever Gulf – manufacturer and supplier of iconic Beauty & Personal Care, Home Care, and Foods & Refreshment products –is celebrating the UAE’s Year of the Fiftiethwith a series of promotional programmes and initiatives for developing local women’s talents. The partnership will also promote the local manufacturing sector through ‘50×50,’an initiative in line with the strategic mission of Dubai Industries & Exports to assist companies in the emirate to enter and become successful in overseas markets, in addition to promoting industrial manufacturing of value-added products in line with the Dubai Industrial Strategy 2030.

The ‘50×50’ initiative aims to use the scale and power of selected Unilever brands to drive visibility for the Year of the Fiftiethcampaign.  This will be achieved via the incorporation of the ‘Year of the Fiftieth’ logo on exclusive Unilever product packs, such as Comfort, Lifebuoy, and Lipton tea. Unilever will additionally engage a wide range of consumers in the UAE through in-store and other activations starting November 2021.

Engineer Saed Alawadi, CEO of Dubai Industries & Exports stated: “Dubai Industries & Exports is pleased to launch our Year of the Fiftieth campaign in cooperation with the industrial sector as it highlights the existing integration between the public and private sectors in the emirate.We are celebrating the fiftieth year of our beloved country by highlighting locally made products that are connected with our local community and also make their way to various international markets from Dubai. The industrial sector in Dubai, and products from the UAE in general, are trusted locally and internationally for their global quality standards they have achieved. The focus given by everyone to maintaining quality of our local products have enhanced their ability to achieve high rankings and enter international markets successfully.”

Ahmed Kadous,VP Unilever MENA Supply Chain, added: “It’s our pleasure to participate in the UAE’s Year of the Fiftieth celebrations in cooperation with Dubai Industries & Exports, as we work closely with government agencies on various projects and initiatives.”

Added Kadous: “In line with Unilever’s commitment towards increased equity, diversity and inclusion and its focus on the development of local talent, the ‘50 x 50’ campaign will seek to attract and develop more local women, Emiratisas well as residents, into the Supply Chain function via internship programmes in co-operation with Dubai Industries & Exportsby the beginning of 2022. This initiative allows women-owned businesses to learn about advanced manufacturing atthe world-class facilities of Unilever. Once the women-owned businesses acquire the necessary knowledge and experience, they are supported to become suppliers to Unilever’s global network.”

The ‘50×50’ campaign will allow 50 women to learn at Unilever’s iconic local facility – the Dubai Personal Care (DPC) Factory. Set up in 2016,the facility manufactures brands such as Lifebuoy, Dove, Tresseme, Vaseline etc. all of which are proudly marketed as ‘Made in UAE.’ “The DPC factory is one of the largest personal care liquids manufacturing units in MENA. It is a leader in sustainability and one of the first factories in the region to have both Solar Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal systems generating 100% of its electricity from green sources, with zero carbon impact. With an export network of more than 31 countries across MENA, USA, Canada, UK, Latin America and South-East Asia we are proud that our quality products carry the ‘Made in UAE’ label.”

DPC has been declared by the World Economic Forum in January 2020 as an ‘Advanced 4^th Industrial Revolution Lighthouse’ for making radical progress in the development and application of digital industrial technologies and advanced manufacturing methods. It is the first manufacturing site in the UAE and the first non-energy manufacturing site in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to be so recognized.

Moreover, the Lipton tea factory, set up in the Jebel Ali Free Zone in 1998, is a global tea hub for Unilever,exporting to 30 countries. Unilever exports 70% of the produce from the Jebel Ali facility to markets in six continents,thus promoting the ‘Made in UAE’ label across the globe.