Past and present Unilever bosses have said the firm would be "negatively impacted" by Brexit.
Economic uncertainty in the event of a UK vote to leave the EU would hit the consumer goods giant, a spokesman said.
He said Unilever was responding to questions about the future from employees and pensioners.
Some UK bosses have previously said that Britain can be economically successful outside the European Union.
Unilever said in a statement it would still operate and have facilities such as research laboratories in the UK after a Brexit.
But it added: "However, the way we run the company may be fundamentally different if the decision were taken to leave the EU."
A spokesman said it was too early to say what effect Brexit would have on Unilever jobs, hiring, or investment.
However, uncertainty about the knock-on effects on the UK economy could stifle business behaviour, the spokesman said.
"We
cannot predict the consequences on the economy and subsequent impact on
our operations in the UK," the Unilever statement said.
'Irreversible decision'
Chief
executive Paul Polman, along with former chief executives Patrick Cescau
and Niall FitzGerald and former chairman Sir Michael Perry, sent a
joint letter to employees on Thursday.
"It is not for us to
suggest how people might vote... but in taking this hugely important and
irreversible decision, we feel a responsibility to point out that
Unilever in the UK, with its thriving operating company, international
research centres, factories and global headquarters would, in our
considered opinion, be negatively impacted if the UK were to leave the
European Union."
Trade and economy
The debate
- About half of UK overseas trade is conducted with the EU
- The EU single market allows the free movement of goods, services, capital and workers
- Trade negotiations with other parts of the world are conducted by the EU, not individual member states
Leave
- UK companies would be freed from the burden of EU regulation
- Trade with EU countries would continue because we import more from them than we export to them
- Britain would be able to negotiate its own trade deals with other countries
Remain
- Brexit would cause an economic shock and growth would be slower
- As a share of exports Britain is more dependent on the rest of the EU than they are on us
- The UK would still have to apply EU rules to retain access to the single market
Previously, Mr Polman had told the Guardian
that Unilever had no plans to scale back its UK operations in the event
of Brexit, but that "it would be very good" for the UK to remain in the
EU.
In their letter to Unilever's 7,500 UK employees, the bosses
said the company owed much of its success over the past 25 years to
having access to "a single European market of 500 million consumers".
The
"collective weight of the European Union" had helped "open up markets
and drive standards in other parts of the world, including in such
important areas as the environment and social protection", it said.
The
letter added that the European Union has become "a window on the world -
crucial to any European-based business, like Unilever, seeking to grow
and prosper in a highly globalised marketplace".
But Vote Leave
campaigners have previously said that trade in Europe would carry on as
before after a Brexit, and that the UK "could do a trade deal with the
US that the EU is failing to do".
In the UK, some bosses have come out in favour of a Brexit.
Last week JCB chairman Lord Bamford wrote to his company's 6,500
employees to explain why he favoured a vote to leave the European Union.
He said he was "very confident that we can stand on our own two feet".
And Sir James Dyson said Britain would gain more from leaving the EU than it would lose.
He said the idea that Britain could not trade successfully outside the EU was "absolute cobblers".
Sir
James told the Daily Telegraph that the UK "will create more wealth and
more jobs by being outside the EU than we will within it".
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