ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands — Unilever, the biggest maker of food and soap products, Thursday said it plans to sell Mazola cooking oil and about a dozen other brands in North America by the end of this year as it focuses on its 400 best sellers.

        The Dutch-British company hired Goldman, Sachs & Co. to find buyers for the brands, which have total sales of about $400 million and are profitable as a group, spokesman Richard van der Eijk said. He declined to comment on potential buyers.

        “Mazola is well-known and therefore a cash cow but not a grower, and that's what they're focused on,” said Mariska Zonneveld, an analyst at NIB Capital Bank in the Netherlands who has a “market perform” rating on the stock.

        Unilever is scrapping 1,200 brands to put more money behind market lead ers such as Hellmann's mayonnaise and Lipton teas.

        Ms. Zonneveld thinks Unilever will likely get a price for the brands that's roughly equal to sales.

        The sale of the brands is also part of the company's process of completing its integration with Bestfoods, Unilever said.

        Unilever bought the Englewood, N.J.-based owner of the Hellmann's, Mazola, Knorr and Mueller's brands in June 2000. It later acquired Ben and Jerry's ice cream and Slimfast foods. The purchases cost more than $28 billion and made Unilever one of the largest food companies in the world.

        Other brands to be sold by Unilever include Karo and Golden Griddle syrups, Kingsford cornstarch and Rit dye, the company said Thursday. Canadian brands up for sale include Canada and Benson's cornstarches, St. Lawrence corn oil and Crown and Beehive corn syrups.

        The company will also sell plants in Argo, Ill., and Indianapolis, spokesman Stephen Milton said. The 240 employees at those plants will probably be offered positions by the new owners, he said.

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