August 12, 2014: Looking forward for a sharper marketing focus the FMCG major, Hindustan Unilever has announced that it would be splitting the home and personal care business which till now was under one umbrella the HPC business. 75 per cent of the revenue of HUL comes from its HPC portfolio while the foods business contributes 16 per cent. HUL which has split the HPC and food division post the split will resemble the structure of parent Unilever, which operates across four divisions — personal care, foods, refreshments and home care.
Lux, Lifebuoy, Dove, Fair & Lovely, Clinic Plus and Pond’s — will be housed in the new personal care division. These are six out of 11 brands of HUL which are Rs.1,000 crore brands. Rin, Surf Excel, Wheel and Vim brand which are Rs.1,000 crore brands will now come under home care brands
Speaking about the split of HPC business, Sanjiv Mehta, CEO and MD, HUL was quoted as saying, “We have reorganised the home and personal care business into two separate businesses to ensure focus on the growth drivers for each of these businesses.” Personal care business for HUL is growing faster than home care and is becoming an ever larger part of the company’s business. The growth in the personal care business is attributed to premium offerings and several global brand launches.
Priya Nair, now vice-president, laundry, will manage home care at Unilever’s India unit and Samir Singh will head personal care. He is currently in charge of Lifebuoy globally and personal care lead for the South Asia cluster.
