A subsidiary of a British company called Unilever, Hindustan Unilever Ltd is a consumer goods giant headquartered in Mumbai.
It is a fast-moving consumer goods (FMGC) business that claims to touch the lives of millions of people across the country with over 50 brands spanning more than 15 categories including skin and hair care, foods and drinks, home and hygiene, oral care, and more.
Some of the most popular brands in its portfolio include Dove, Wheel, Rin, Kissan, Clinic Plus, Vaseline, Surf Excel, Lux, Horlicks, Pepsodent, Pond’s, and Glow & Lovely.
History
The three Indian subsidiaries of Unilever – Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Company, United Traders Limited, and Lever Brothers India Limited merged in 1956 to form Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) and offered 10% of its equity to the public. After this, several other brands like Pond’s, Brooke Bond, Lakme, and others merged with HUL, making it stronger and bigger.
The foods and beverages industry saw a series of alliances, mergers, and acquisitions in the 1990s. Brooke Bond Lipton India Limited (BBLIL) merged with HUL in 1996 in an attempt to capture opportunities from domestic and international markets and enable fund investments required for new categories.
A historic event took place in 2000 when the Indian government decided to give 74 percent equity of Modern Foods to the company. It introduced a series of initiatives in the 2000s including the ‘Pureit’ water purifier and Direct to Home. HUL received numerous awards and recognitions and topped the lists of FMCG companies and Indian businesses.
In 2020, HUL acquired VWash, a leading female intimate hygiene brand. With the merger with GSK Consumer Healthcare, HUL’s portfolio includes the iconic health drinks Boost and Horlicks, making the company the largest F&R business in the country.
Board, Management and Auditors
Board of Directors
Hindustan Unilever Limited operates under the leadership of the CEO & MD, Mr. Sanjiv Mehta. Here are the members of the board of directors at HUL.
Sanjiv Mehta – Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director
Leading Unilever South Asia as President, Sanjiv Mehta not only heads the management committee of HUL but is also a member of the Unilever Leadership Executive responsible for running the global consumer goods giant.
Sanjiv is also the President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Director of the Board of the Indian School of Business, and Independent Director of the Board of Air India.
Nitin Paranjpe – Non-Executive Chairman
Nitin Paranjpe has been a member of the Unilever Leadership Executive for almost a decade and the Chief Operating Officer at Unilever. As a Chief People & Transformation Officer, he leads the delivery of the new Compass Organization as well as HR functions.
Ritesh Tiwari – Executive Director (Finance & IT and CFO)
The Vice President of Finance at Unilever, South Asia, Ritesh Tiwari has been leading teams in India and abroad at Unilever in finance, supply chain, and even sales. His most recent role at Unilever is that of the Vice President in UK and CFO for Unilever International where he is credited for introducing digital transformation and simplification.
Dev Bajpai – Executive Director
Dev Bajpai has been a member of HUL’s management committee since 2010 and is also a member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. He handles legal & corporate affairs functions at the company.
Willem Uijen – Executive Director (Supply Chain)
He heads the supply chain functions of HUL as well as Unilever, South Asia. He is Dutch and has been with Unilever since 1999.
Independent Directors
There are six independent directors on the board of Hindustan Unilever Limited who oversee the company’s corporate governance and legal compliance and protect the interests of the public and investors. They are – O.P.Bhatt, Kalpana Morparia, Sanjiv Misra, Ashu Suyash, Ashish Gupta, and Leo Puri.
Auditors
The financials of the Hindustan Unilever Ltd are audited by M/s B S R & Co. LLP. This audit firm had been appointed as Statutory Auditors in 2019 for the second term of five years. The company also appoints cost auditors and secretarial auditors for each financial year.
Market Capitalisation and Stock Information
Hindustan Unilever Ltd was the first-ever foreign subsidiary to offer equity to Indian investors. It was listed on the Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta Stock Exchanges in 1956. Today, the HUL stock is listed and traded on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange. It has been consistently performing well and is considered to be one of the most lucrative stocks to invest in.
The top mutual funds that have invested over 5% of their AUM in the stock include ICICI Prudential Bharat Consumption Fund Direct-Growth, Baroda BNP Paribas India Consumption Fund Direct-Growth, Canara Robeco Consumer Trends Fund Direct-Growth, and Mirae Asset Great Consumer Fund Direct-Growth.
Corporate Social Responsibility Information
Hindustan Unilever Ltd is committed to running and growing the business in a socially responsible manner.
It works towards minimizing the environmental impact of its operations and serving communities through different initiatives. The board has introduced various CSR projects as discussed below:
Water Conservation
The Hindustan Unilever Foundation(HUF) was established to support scalable solutions aimed at addressing the country’s water challenges.
Currently, the water conservation program covers 11,500 villages in 12 states in partnership with NGOs and co-founders.
Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat
This project is designed to promote health and hygiene practices in the country as outlined by India’s Swachh Bharat program. It also aims to build and utilize solutions for waste management and sanitization.
Plastic Waste Management
The company has committed to minimizing its footprint by switching to reusable and recyclable plastic packaging material. It also works closely with partners for end-to-end pilot projects in the area.
Happy Homes Projects
Under this project, a home called Asha Daan was set up in Mumbai for challenged and abandoned children and HIV-positive people. Ankur is another center for education for challenged children in Assam.
Project Shakti
This is HUL’s rural initiative targeting small villages. It aims to empower underprivileged rural women by giving them income-making opportunities, providing them with health and hygiene education, and creating access to information through a dedicated portal.
Financial Information
Top Line
The audited financial statements of the last five years show that Hindustan Unilever Ltd has made a great leap in terms of revenue.
Over the past few years, the company has reported impressive turnover growth rates and volume growth rates.
Bottom Line
The company has added 26,000 crore INR to its bottom line in the last decade and doubled its turnover.
The profit has grown exponentially over the last five years, with profit before tax increasing from 7,285 crore INR in 2018 to 11,739 crore INR in 2022.
Net Worth
The net worth remained steady at about 8000 crore INR from 2018 to 2020 but reached a whooping 47,674 crore INR in 2021 and was reported at 49,061 crore INR as of March 2022.
HUL
