Unilever could be preparing to sell some of its best-known brands, including Flora margarine and Stork butter, in a bid to enhance investor returns, according to media reports.

Several newspapers, including The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph, have reported that the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant is next month due to publish a strategic review in which it could announce that it is off-loading some underperforming businesses in a £6bn auction.

The reports said that its margarine line is understood to be one of the businesses on the block as a result of changing consumer behaviour, leading to a slowdown in the market for spreads.

Unilever was not immediately available for comment on Monday morning.

Last month Kraft Heinz dropped a £115bn ($143bn) offer to buy Unilever after the latter said that the bid was too low and carried no “financial or strategic” merit.

A takeover would have been one of the biggest ever in corporate history, and the biggest ever acquisition of a UK-based company by a non-UK one, Thomson Reuters data showed at the time.

The world’s most valuable brands Show all 10 1 /10 The world’s most valuable brands The world’s most valuable brands 1st - Google Google replaced Apple as the world’s most valuable brand, with a brand value of $109.5bn, according to Brand Finance The world’s most valuable brands 2nd - Apple Apple’s brand value declined from $145.9bn to $107.1bn in 2016 The world’s most valuable brands 3rd - Amazon Amazon's brand value rose from $69.6bn to $106.4bn in 2016 Amazon The world’s most valuable brands 4th - At&t Of the 40 telecoms brands in the ranking, AT&T in 2016 overtook Verizon as the most valuable brand rising to $87bn from $59.9bn the year before The world’s most valuable brands 5th - Microsoft Microsoft's brand value rose marginally from $67.3bn to $76.3bn in 2016 The world’s most valuable brands 6th - Samsung Amazon's brand value rose from $58.6bn to $66.2bn The world’s most valuable brands 7th - Verizon Verizon's brand value inched up from $63.1bn to $65.9bn The world’s most valuable brands 8th - Walmart Walmart's brand value rose from $53.6bn to $62.5bn The world’s most valuable brands 9th - Facebook Facebook's brand value increased sharply from $34bn to just shy of $62bn The world’s most valuable brands 10th - ICBC ICBC saw its brand value rise to $47.8bn from $36.3bn. It was the most valuabe financial brand in the world in 2016 replacing Wells Fargo

Kraft, which is the world’s fifth-largest food and beverage company, has already in recent years already been forced to adjust its product range to adjust to consumers’ changing preferences and a trend towards fresher, non-packaged items.