Unilever has refused to be drawn on a fresh report in Morocco that has said the FMCG giant plans to shut two factories in the country.

According to a report by business weekly Challenge, the company is planning to close its two manufacturing facilities in Morocco in June.

The report, published on Sunday (24 March), follows a story last June from another Moroccan business publication, Médias24, which claimed Unilever was preparing to end local production.

The group makes food and home-care products in Morocco, including a site that manufactures products sold under the Knorr brand.

Approached by Just Food for a reaction to the latest report, Unilever said: “We don’t comment on rumour or speculation.”

According to the Knorr owner’s annual report, the company’s operations in Morocco are based in Aïn Sebaâ in Casablanca, the country’s largest city. Unilever’s operations in the Maghreb region also include an export office in the Tunisian capital of Tunis.

The Hellmann’s mayonnaise maker does not disclose annual sales for individual markets. However, the company has disclosed that its underlying sales in Africa as a whole “delivered double-digit growth” in 2023.

Unilever also publishes a combined sales figure for its Asia Pacific Africa reporting unit. On that basis, sales stood at €26.23bn ($28.41bn) in 2023 versus €27.5bn a year earlier.

Last week, the group announced plans to separate its ice cream business from the company.

The Ben & Jerry’s manufacturer, which is the world’s largest producer of ice cream, said demerging the assets into a listed company was “the most likely separation route”.