Six Hindustan Unilever brands cross ₹2,000-cr sales milestone

Six brands of Hindustan Unilever (HUL) have notched up annual sales in excess of ₹2,000 crore. These include Surf Excel, Brooke Bond, Wheel, Lifebuoy, Rin and Fair and Lovely.

The cumulative sales of these brands constitute about half the consumer giant’s total India revenue of ₹32,000 crore.

The fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector has over 11 brands that have crossed the ₹1,000-crore mark in annual sales in FY16. There are over 3,000 listed companies on Indian stock exchanges that have a turnover less than ₹2,000 crore.

HUL, the Indian arm of Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever, has about 40 brands in its portfolio spanning categories such as soaps, detergents, shampoos, skin care, toothpastes, deodorants, cosmetics, tea, coffee, packaged foods, ice cream, and water purifiers.

Recent additions to its repertoire include hair care brands Tresseme, TiGi, Indulekha and Brylcreem, and ice-cream brand Magnum.

Surf Excel, which touched ₹3,000 crore in annual sales last fiscal year, is the biggest brand in HUL’s stable. Of the six brands that have achieved the ₹2,000-crore sales mark, four are detergents. Fairness cream ‘Fair and Lovely’, has also entered the ₹2,000 crore club. Experts said the shift in the brand positioning of the cream from “fairness” to skin improvement has paid off for HUL.

For HUL, the soap-and-detergent category witnessed massive volume growth, and even beat the market, as commodity costs witnessed a significant reduction last year. The company also took decisive pricing actions on pricing to grow the volumes.

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