Egyptian B2B eCommerce Startup Cartona Partners With Unilever

Egyptian retail tech company Cartona will work with multinational consumer goods company Unilever to help add more offerings to the marketplace’s base of retailers, suppliers and distributors, a press release said Friday (May 27).

Cartona’s goal is to digitize the trade system in Egypt, which is still largely operating offline.

By partnering with Cartona, Unilever will get the access to the digital network of more than 60,000 retailers across the region. And Cartona’s customers will get access to Unilever products more easily, the release said.

“We are thrilled to partner with Uniliever, a multinational consumer goods company with a strong presence in Egypt. This cooperation allows both parties to offer unique solutions, revolutionizing Egypt’s traditional trade and broadening our prospective user base across various governorates,” said CEO Mahmoud Talaat. “The partnership also aims to support Unilever’s expansion plans in the Egyptian market, ahead of a promising stage in the short and long term alike.”

And Unilever eCommerce Channel Manager for North Africa, Khaled Radwan, said the last few years have seen more activity in Egypt in business-to-business (B2B) investment inflows.

“This year, Unilever is targeting B2B and eCommerce investments; our partnership with Cartona allows us to reach this goal in an effective manner aligning with local market needs.”

See also: Unilever Announces Sweeping Restructuring of Global Businesses

PYMNTS wrote that Unilever has recently also announced an “organizational restructuring” that came with 1,500 layoffs, as well as the creation of five business groups to replace its old structure.

Unilever was organized into five areas: Beauty and Wellbeing; Personal Care; Home Care; Nutrition; and Ice Cream, all of them fully responsible and accessible for helping grow the company.

Unilever CEO Alan Jope said the new model had been “designed to continue the step-up we are seeing in the performance of our business.”

“Moving to five category-focused business groups will enable us to be more responsive to consumer and channel trends, with crystal-clear accountability for delivery. Growth remains our top priority, and these changes will underpin our pursuit of this.”