Tag: home care

Q3 FY 2025: Hindustan Unilever Ltd & the art of growing steadily

MUMBAI: India’s leading FMCG company Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) has reported steady financial results for the third quarter (Q3) and the nine-month period ended 31 December 2024. With a strategic focus on premiumisation, innovation, and cost optimisation, HUL demonstrated resilience amidst market challenges and rising input costs.

Q3 2025 ended 31 December 2024, saw HUL record a total income of Rs 16,050 crore, a 1.7 per cent increase from Rs 15,781 crore in the same quarter of the previous year. Its revenue from operations stood at Rs 15,559 crore, driven by solid performances in the home care and food categories. Profit before exceptional items and tax remained steady at Rs 3,474 crore even as net profit rose 2.1 per cent to Rs 2,989 crore as against Rs 2,925 crore in Q3 2024.

Operating expenses were well-managed at Rs 12,576 crore, indicating efficient cost control. Home care vertical was a stellar performer with revenue climbing Rs 5,739 crore, with segment profit at Rs 1,086 crore, underscoring its role as a key growth driver. The beauty and well being vertical also saw revenues swelling to Rs Rs 3,556 crore, although profits declined slightly to Rs 1,018 crore due to higher input costs. And the food segment was a steady performer awith revenue at Rs 3,745 crore and proft as Rs 755 crore.

On a nine month basis, HUL’s total income reached Rs 48,159 crore, up 1.9 per cent from Rs 47,266 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Revenue from operations stood at Rs 46,759 crore, showcasing steady consumer demand. Profit before tax grew to Rs 11,053 crore, while net profit increased by 6.1 per cent to Rs 8,196 crore. The home care category recorded a nine month revenue of Rs 17,143 crore, supported by premiumisation and product innovation. The beauty & well being vertical generated Rs 10,258 crore, benefiting from a focus on personal care products while the foods tranche delivered consistent revenue of Rs 11,398 crore, reflecting effective competitive pricing strategies.

During the quarter, HUL split its beauty & personal care division into two new segments—beauty & wellbeing and personal care—to enhance strategic focus and operational efficiency. Prudent management of raw material costs and advertising expenditure helped mitigate the impact of rising input costs and currency fluctuations. A continued shift towards premium product offerings in home care and beauty & wellbeing bolstered overall performance.

Additionally, it got clearance from its board (based on the recommendation of the independent and audit committees) to dissect the ice-cream business from HUL and fuse it with its wholly owned subsidiary Kwality Wall’s (India) Ltd. Following this, Kwality Walls will issue shares to all the HUL shareholders in a 1:1 ratio.. The ice-cream business had a turnover of Rs 1,595 crore in the year ended 31 March, 2024, that is 2.7 per cent of HUL’s turnover, and it has some great brands in Cornetto, Magnum and Kwality Walls. The demerger creates a leading ice-cream company listed on the stock exchange which will be given wings to fly with a separate managed allowed to focus on its growth.

The demerger followed a decision by Hindustan Unilever’s parent company in the UK to carve out its ice-cream business into a separate company. The rationale behind this separation was that in ice-cream has a different operating model, including differentiated infrastructure for supply and distribution, capital allocation needs, distinct channel landscape and go- to-market strategy.

HUL also announced that it has agreed to acquire 90.5 per cent of the Rs 500 crore turnover Uprising Science Pvt Ltd – which is behind the Minimalist hair care and skin care products range. The HUL board agreed to a price tag of Rs 2,670 crore at a pre-money enterprise valuation of Rs 2,955 crore (and a primary infusion of Rs 45 crore) for the acquisition of the shares from the sellers which include co-founders Mohit Kumar Yadav and . Rahul Yadav, Peak XV Partners Venture Investments VII, Surge Ventures II, and Twenty Nine Capital Partners (General Partner). The transaction is expected to be completed in Q1 of FY 2026. Following that, HUL will acquire the remaining 9.5 per cent of Uprising’s equity within two years.

Minimalist will join the portfolio of brands in HUL’s beauty & wellbeing division led by executive director Harman Dhillon. The current Minimalist team led by Mohit and Rahul will continue to operate the business in collaboration with HUL.

January 22, 2025
Clensta appoints Ankit Gaur as the new CGO & Strategy Officer

Mumbai: Home and personal care startup Clensta on Tuesday announced the appointment of Ankit Gaur as their chief growth and strategy officer.

As Clensta gears up to expand its portfolio and offerings, Gaur will be spearheading brand and performance marketing, communication, sales & growth functions for the brand.

With deep expertise in spearheading disruptive innovation, Gaur brings to the table an innate knack for understanding consumer behaviour. In his role, Ankit will be expected to deliver transformational growth in establishing Clensta as the undisputed market leader in home and personal care segment.

An alumnus of the prestigious SP Jain School of Global Management, Gaur comes with an extensive experience of 13 years in the industry, and has worked across different industries and verticals throughout his career. Prior to joining Clensta, Gaur was at the helm of the direct-to-consumer (D2C) business at Livpure. He has also held various senior leadership positions with organisations such as CuroCarte, Ashok Leyland, Wal-Mart India, Big Bazaar India and Wonderchef.

In his previous stint as an entrepreneur, Ankit piloted the launch of his startup, EthnicRoom, an omnichannel ethnic fashion startup, and successfully raised series-A funding for the brand. His expertise as an entrepreneur will be instrumental in strengthening Clensta’s brand positioning across the country.

“We are delighted to have Ankit on board as our chief growth and strategy officer and would like to welcome him to the Clensta family,” said Clensta founder and CEO Puneet Gupta. “Clensta was incorporated in 2016 with a vision to provide affordable and effective cleaning solutions to the world while also ensuring our planet’s commitment by contributing towards reducing pollution and waste. As we complete six years in business and progress towards the next leg of our journey, we are aiming to expand our presence across markets and enhance our product portfolio to include a more comprehensive set of offerings. Ankit, with his extensive experience across different sectors and industry, is a welcome addition to the team and would play a significant role in catapulting the company to newer heights.”

“I am honoured to have been appointed as the chief growth and strategy officer at Clensta,” said Ankit Gaur. “I have been closely following the developments at Clensta and am impressed with what the brand has achieved in such a short span of time. The ecosystem of sustainable consumption and production that Clensta is trying to build is truly commendable and closely mirrors my personal ethos. I am excited about the new role and look forward to establishing Clensta as one of the most sought-after brands in the D2C space.”

June 14, 2022
Madhusudhan Rao, Deepak Subramanian join HUL management committee

Mumbai: FMCG major Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) on Wednesday announced the appointment of Madhusudhan Rao and Deepak Subramanian to its management committee. While Rao is named as HUL executive director – beauty and wellbeing and personal care, Subramanian is HUL executive director – home care.

Rao takes over from Priya Nair, who is elevated to global role as HUL chief marketing officer – beauty and wellbeing. Subramanian succeeds Prabha Narasimhan, who has decided to leave the company to pursue an external opportunity, HUL said in a statement.

“Madhusudhan has a successful track record in a variety of operational and strategic roles. He has brought in a strong performance edge in his teams and has pioneered several innovations that uphold Unilever’s high science and technology credentials,” commented HUL chairman and MD Sanjiv Mehta. “Deepak has championed innovation and sustainable strategies to significantly improve brand equity and deliver growth. He has demonstrated superior business acumen in building new categories, primarily in start-up business verticals. I am certain that they will take the business to the next level of performance.”

Talking about Nair’s contribution to the business, Mehta said, “She has been an active champion for building future skills and experimentation, and has led several path-breaking marketing initiatives such as the Kan Khajura Tesan. Under her leadership, the business witnessed high growth in key categories driven by consumer-centric innovations and award-winning, purpose-driven communication.”

“Prabha led home care to deliver a strong performance across South Asia over the last two years. She has contributed immensely towards embedding the Clean Future agenda into the Home Care product development strategy,” he further said about Narasimhan.

Rao joined HUL in 1991 and he is currently serving as Unilever EVP – home and hygiene. In his 30+ years in the company, he demonstrated a strong performance track record in marketing, customer development and brand development roles across geographies. In his current role, Rao helped shape the home and hygiene category as a successful business with a distinctive high-performance culture, said the statement.

Currently working as VP – home care, South-East Asia/ANZ (SEAA) and global head – fabric enhancers, Subramanian joined HUL in 1995 as a management trainee. He significantly improved the profitability of the business, whilst strengthening top-line growth. In his global role, Subramanian helped transform the fabric enhancers category by driving innovations and re-positioning the brands to have more social impact, according to the company.

Recently, the company also announced the separation of the position of chairman of the board and the CEO and managing director. HUL announced the appointment of Nitin Paranjpe, currently chief operating officer of Unilever as non-executive chairman of the company, with effect from 31 March. However, Sanjiv Mehta will continue as HUL chief executive officer and managing director.

The FMCG giant reported a strong all-around performance for the third quarter. The company’s growth was competitive and profitable. The net profit surged to Rs 2,243 with 17 per cent growth year-on-year, according to the statement.

March 9, 2022
Sundar Raman elevated to global CEO of P&G’s fabric and home care division

Mumbai: Procter & Gamble (P&G) has announced the appointment of Sundar Raman as global CEO of the company’s fabric and home care division which includes P&G brands like Ariel, Tide, Ambipur and Downy. He steps into the role subsequent to Shailesh Jejurikar’s elevation to chief operating officer.

Raman began his career as a market analyst in India in 1998 straight from campus and soon moved to the US where he worked in a variety of roles from business intelligence to marketing in P&G Beauty. A visionary leader with broad expertise and a passion for innovation, he was involved in the launch of new products such as Tide Pods and Downy Unstoppables, said the company in a statement. He also leads equality inclusion for Fabric Home Care reflecting his passion for diversity, inclusion, and the company’s citizenship agenda.

He has earned his degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (1996), and a post-graduate diploma from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (1998).

India has been a talent factory for P&G worldwide and one of the largest exporters of top talent to P&G globally, shared the company. The company has approximately 350 Indian expats in roles across the company with the recent being Shailesh Jejurikar becoming the first Indian to be elevated to COO of the company.

October 7, 2021
HUL Q4: Net profit up 41%; health, hygiene & nutrition portfolios drive growth

NEW DELHI: FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) reported a good set of numbers on all fronts for the quarter ending 31 March 2021. Beating market estimates by a significant margin, net profit surged 41 per cent to Rs 2,143 crore on the back of a solid 16 per cent volume growth.

Revenue grew by 34.6 per cent year-on-year to Rs 12,132 crore during Q4. Domestic consumer growth was at 21 per cent.

For the fiscal 2020-21, the consumer goods company said its consolidated net profit was at Rs 7,999 crore, as compared to Rs 6,756 crore in 2019-20, a growth of 18 per cent. Consolidated total income for FY21 was at Rs 47,438 crore, as against Rs 40,415 crore in FY20.

Health, hygiene and nutrition, which makes up 80 per cent of business, grew in double-digits for the third consecutive quarter, while discretionary and out-of-home categories improved sequentially, the company said.

Home care growth at 15 per cent was enabled by a strong recovery in fabric wash. Household care continued its strong performance delivering double-digit growth. Liquids and fabric sensations continued to outperform, benefitting from robust market development initiatives, stated HUL.

“Our in-quarter performance was strong on both the top-line and bottom-line. Despite challenging times, in FY21 our business ecosystem has withstood the disruption and demonstrated agility and resilience across the value chain,” said HUL chairman & MD Sanjiv Mehta. “We have delivered on our multi stakeholder business model. Our purpose-led brands and capabilities were further strengthened during the year and this positions us well to serve our consumers during this turbulent period.”

The company’s focus will firmly remain behind delivering volume led competitive growth, he added.

Mehta went on to say that the recent surge in Covid cases is of serious concern and “ensuring safety and well-being of people remains our top priority”.

April 30, 2021
Jabong founders invest $2 million in laundry services start-up Wassup

MUMBAI: Chennai based on-demand convenience brand Wassup, has raised $2 million from Jabong founders Arun Chandra and Praveen Sinha.

Wassup, which is co-founded by Balachandar.R and Durga Das, will continue to offer on-demand expediency services as well as expand focus on marketing and customer acquisition activities in Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi and also add two more cities Pune and Cochin to their market presence.

The brand currently offers services like laundry, dry cleaning, shoes and bag refurbishments in the above mentioned cities. For the consumer’s convenience, the company has about 30 pickup points called “Aggregating Hubs”. The company is adding 30 more hubs in the next 6 months. In the next three years, the brand intends to be in 100 cities with a customer base of 1 million.

Globally, the industry is estimated to be at $9 billion, while the laundry market is estimated to be valued at INR 200,000 crore annually, 95% of which is the unorganized market.

Wassup co-founder and CEO Balachandar R said, “We are looking to service the daily laundry requirements of middle class Indian consumers, which is currently being addressed by a maid servant or by self-wash. The potential to move unorganized offline business to organized online convenience is huge. We are seeing a good opportunity and want to be the market leaders in the segment in India and are happy to have Arun and Praveen onboard with us on this journey to be the leading brand in convenience services. We will be adding additional interesting convenience services in the near future.”

Wassup co-founder and managing director Durga Das, who has 20 years of Silicon Valley experience behind her, added, “Technology is going to be the true enabler, which will foster customer delight. We have built a technology platform that integrates the consumer app, point of sale, tagging and tracking system and the CRM solution. Additionally, we are adding analytics, a marketing performance platform and an efficient logistics management to ensure the customer gets an unrivalled experience in convenience. Mobile is going to be central to our tech development.”

Jabong’s Mohan and Sinha said, “The on-demand convenience industry is revolutionizing commercial behaviour in cities around the world and the growth of the industry in India is exponential given the perennial growth in the per-capita of the country. The consumer behaviour is witnessing a steady change and this is the best time to contribute in the same. We are elated to be a part of this riveting market opportunity like Wassup. It has immense potential to become a catalyst in the evolution of consumer behaviour. We have bestowed our complete trust upon the model and would lend out the desired support to the co-founders for a hindrance-free growth.”

The company’s expansion plans include adding the personal care, home care, car care, pet care and handyman services to their portfolio.

May 12, 2015