The Hindu Business Line : Branded foods to drive HLL growth

Hindustan Lever Limited sees a huge opportunity in the branded foods business and believes it has the confidence to repeat its success story of building large mass markets.

"Unilever's extensive presence in foods globally complement our local consumer knowledge and insights in the Indian food and beverages categories," Mr Harish Manwani, Chairman, HLL, told the company's shareholders at its annual general meeting here on Monday.

The company has a solid base in tea with Brooke Bond as a clear market leader and strong equities in brands such as Annapurna, Kissan and Knorr. "The challenge is to build scale," Mr Manwani said.

"In India, we face the challenge of both malnutrition and the resultant lack of sufficient and correct vitamins and proteins and over-nutrition. Unilever is leading the development of foods that deliver vitality and well-being," he said.

The challenge

According to him, the challenge at the bottom end of the consumer pyramid was to supplement basic everyday food products with daily requirements of vitamins and other ingredients.

HLL, according to him, was on the threshold of an exciting era. By 2010 consumer spending in developing and emerging markets will overtake that in developed countries in purchasing power parity terms. India will be at the forefront of this world.

"Winning in such a market like India will require that FMCG companies dispel traditional beliefs of focussing on narrowly-defined consumer segments," he said.

HLL was uniquely positioned to capture these opportunities as the company had a long history, a deep understanding of consumers, differentiated brand portfolio, innovation and execution capabilities to straddle the pyramid, Mr Manwani said.

He said the company would continue to invest behind brands to spur growth.

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