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Purvita Chatterjee

Mumbai, Jan. 8 Targeting a new set of consumers for its OOH (out-of-home) business, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) is approaching school kids with its beverage brands, especially soups. Having installed vending machines at offices and public places including retail chains, the FMCG major is now tapping into the potential of schools as an additional OOH segment which can addressed.

Mr Sidharth Singh, General Manger- Category Head Foods, HUL, said: “We have started talking to school kids to understand the triggers and motivation for food consumption. The purpose is to make a difference to children’s diet with our food brands.”

To begin with, HUL is planning to take its ‘healthy’ Knorr soups to kids in schools on an experimental basis. Adds Mr Singh, “One of the ways to build the OOH business is to get access in a lot more places where people consume beverages. We intend having more vending machines at offices, multiplexes and shopping malls. After all, the more vending machines you have, the more volumes and cup page is ensured. Our strategy is to drive vending machine penetration into high traffic areas.” Lipton, Bru and Knorr are primarily the three beverage brands which are currently available through its vending machines. It is also planning to bring in upgraded fresh bean vending machines for the Bru brand of coffee especially in offices. “We plan to bring in some expensive machines to vend our fresh bean Bru coffee. These would be some top- end vending machines,” says Mr Singh.

In the past, HUL had even tried the concept of a Tea Lounge in Bangalore under the Lipton brand. But now it has restricted its OOH consumption by installing vending machines in shop-in-shop formats at retail chains such as Big Bazaar. “Today we have chain accounts and stand-alone accounts. Right now, we have a plan to address offices and public places such as shopping malls under these accounts for our OOH business,” says Mr Singh. Besides, soup vending is an additional category in the OOH segment which has been initiated in certain northern markets which experience harsh winters.

“We are still small in the OOH business in spite of being a large beverage player. Today, our vending business is growing faster than the retail off-take of our beverage brands from the shop shelves. OOH consumption is going to form an important part of our business as an alternative distribution channel,” claims Mr Singh.

More Stories on : Strategy | Foods & Food Processing | Hindustan Unilever Ltd

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Hind Unilever targets schools for OOH biz

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