While Unilever will keep Bertolli's margarine, pasta sauce and frozen meals, it is divesting all of its olive oil and seed oil businesses to Grupo SOS, the Spanish firm behind the Carbonell olive oil brand.
"The Bertolli brand remains a priority for Unilever with strong growth plans based on capturing the growing appetite for Mediterranean food products," it said in a statement. The Bertolli olive oil and vinegar businesses as well as the Maya, Dante and San Giorgio oil operations turned over 380 million euros in 2007.