- Today HUL dominates the FMCG segment in India with brands having sales of more than 5000 crores, 2000 crores, 1000 crores & 500 crores.
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is Unilever’s Indian subsidiary which is a multinational British-Netherlands company. It is headquartered in Mumbai, India. Food, drinks, cleaning agents, personal care products, water purifiers, and fast-moving consumer goods are among its products.
HUL was established as Lever Brothers of the United Kingdom in 1933 and was renamed ‘Hindustan Lever Limited’ after a merger of constituent groups in 1956. The company was renamed ‘Hindustan Unilever Limited’ in June 2007.
As of 2019, the portfolio of Hindustan Unilever had 35 brands of products in 20 categories. During FY2017–18, the company has 18,000 employees and clocked revenue of some 34,619 crores.
Today HUL dominates the FMCG segment in India with brands having sales of more than 5000 crores, 2000 crores, 1000 crores & 500 crores.
Recently, Surf Excel posted more than Rs 5,000 crore in last year’s annual sales, becoming the first Hindustan Unilever brand to top that brand, driven by the company’s increased focus on premium detergent products.
Surf, launched 60 years ago, posted last year’s revenue of Rs 5,375 crore with a market share of 17.9 percent, said industry managers citing data from Nielsen. It accounted for approximately 14 percent of the company’s net income and 45 percent of its sales in the laundry segment.
Surf in 2018 went ahead of the mass-market Wheel brand that had historically dominated HUL’s portfolio in the laundry product segment.
Six Hindustan Unilever (HUL) brands have annual sales of more than 2,000 crores. These include Surf Excel, Brooke Bond, Active Wheel, Glow & lovely & lifebuoy.
HUL acquired Brooke Bond in 1984 from brand Brooke Bond Leibig. Lifebuoy is a brand introduced by the Lever brothers only.
Another brand Glow & Lovely which was known as fair & lovely earlier saw a name change amid ongoing anti-racism agitation and advocacy, sparked by the police killing an African-American George Floyd.
Other brands that have more sales than more 1,000 crores include a host of names such as Rin, Vim, Lux, Lakme, Dove, Pond’s, Clinic+
The other ethnic brands of HUL which crossed the 500 crores sales mark are Kissan, Pears, Sunsilk, and many more.
British-Dutch major’s Indian subsidiary has purchased Horlicks Brand from GSK for Rs 3.045 crore for India. GSKCH also has under its portfolio Raise, Maltova, and Viva which will now both fall under HUL.
“HUL had been praised for its leadership in the FMCG room before the lockdown. After the virus outbreak, investors see it as a business that will continue to expand given the lockdown due to its leadership role in key categories such as soaps and products for cleaning and hygiene, “says G Chokkalingam, founder & MD Equinomics Research & Advisory Services.
The valuation of Hindustan Unilever (HUL) raised to a record high. The price-to-earnings (P / E) multiple of the FMCG business is now nearly twice that of its peers in the industry — the highest in 17 years. HUL is now priced at almost 77x its trailing 12-month net profit at its current market capitalization of Rs 5.18 trillion,
