News: India to drive Unilever growth

(TNN 30/05/2006) Mumbai - Hindustan Lever, that has seen its profits dipping since the early 2000s due to a slowdown in consumer demand, now sees India as the growth driver for its parent - Unilever.

Thanks to rising incomes, robust economic development and changing lifestyles that would augur growth for the company and for the FMCG sector in the coming years.

For Unilever, developing and emerging (D&E) markets like India, China, Africa among other countries have contributed over 67% to its turnover in 2005.

"By 2010, consumer spending in D&E markets will overtake that in developed countries. Hindustan Lever is positioned to capture the opportunities in India with its vast and differentiated brand portfolio. Also, with its innovation and R&D capabilities it would be able to straddle the entire pyramid,"said Harish Manwani, chairman of HLL.

The socio-economic break-up of India, expressed as a pyramid, would drive consumption and uptrading across categories, Manwani added.

Meanwhile, Hindustan Lever has created separate sales team to cater to the different channels of retail trade. For instance: Organised retail.

This segment currently constitutes just 3% of its FMCG sales but is growing at 25% per annum. HLL brands are sold through a distribution network of 6.3 million outlets across the country.