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| Company type | Public company |
|---|---|
| |
| ISIN | INE030A01027 |
| Industry | Fast-moving consumer goods |
| Predecessor | Indian Vanaspati Manufacturing Company (1931–1956) Lever Brothers India Limited (1933–1956) United Traders Limited (1935–1956) Hindustan Lever Limited (1956–2007) |
| Founded | 1933; 93 years ago (1933) |
| Headquarters | Mumbai, Maharashtra ,India |
Key people | Priya Nair (CEO and MD)[1] |
| Products |
|
| Revenue |  ₹627 billion (US$7.4 billion) (2024)[2] |
| ₹139 billion (US$1.6 billion) (2024)[2] | |
| ₹103 billion (US$1.2 billion) (2024)[2] | |
| Total assets | ₹785 billion (US$9.3 billion) (2024)[2] |
| Total equity | ₹514 billion (US$6.1 billion) (2024)[2] |
Number of employees | 27,764 (2024)(including 19,109 workers)[2] |
| Parent | Unilever (61.90%) |
| Website | www |
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is an Indianfast-moving consumer goods company, headquartered inMumbai.[3] It is a subsidiary of the Anglo-Dutch companyUnilever. Its products include foods, beverages, cleaning agents, personal care products and other consumer staples.
The company was established in India in 1931 as Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Co. Following a merger of constituent groups in 1956, it was renamed Hindustan Lever Limited. The company was renamed again in June 2007 as Hindustan Unilever Limited.[4]
Hindustan Unilever has been at the helm of a lot of controversies, such as dumping highly toxicmercury-contaminated waste in regular dumps, contaminating the land and water ofKodaikanal. (See:Kodaikanal mercury poisoning). The British-Dutch company also faced major flak for an advertising campaign covering the Hindu pilgrimage site atKumbh Mela in a negative light, calling it a "place where old people get abandoned,"[5][6] a move that was termed racist and insensitive.[5]
In December 2018 HUL announced its acquisition ofGlaxoSmithKline India's consumer business for US$3.8 billion in an all-equity merger deal with a 1:4.39 ratio.[7][8] However, the integration of GSK's 3,800 employees remained uncertain as HUL stated there was no clause for retention of employees in the deal.[8] In April 2020, HUL completed its merger with GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH India) after completing all legal procedures.[9]
Hindustan Unilever's corporate headquarters are located inAndheri,Mumbai. The campus is spread over 12.5 acres of land and houses over 1,600 employees.[10] The Campus is designed by Mumbai-based architecture firm Kapadia Associates.[11]
The company's previous headquarters were located in Backbay Reclamation, Mumbai at the Lever House, where it was housed for more than 46 years.[12]
The Hindustan Unilever Research Centre (HURC) was set up in 1966 inMumbai, and Unilever Research India inBangalore in 1997. In 2006, the company's research facilities were brought together at a single site in Bangalore.[13]
In 2001 a thermometer factory inKodaikanal run by Hindustan Unilever dumped glass contaminated withmercury and selling it to scrap merchants.[15] Protests by local NGOs and Greenpeace lead to the shutting of the factory in March 2001.[16] The issue has since snowballed into a controversy impacting the reputation of the company and led to a series of regulatory and legal confrontations. The issue was eventually resolved in 2016 through an out of court settlement between the company and the affected ex-workers.[17][18]
Hindustan Unilever's "Glow & Lovely" is the leadingskin-lightening cream for women in India.[19] The company had to cease television advertisements for the product in 2007. Advertisements depicted depressed, dark-complexioned women, who had been ignored by employers and men, suddenly finding new boyfriends and glamorous careers after the cream had lightened their skin.[20] In 2008, Hindustan Unilever made former Miss WorldPriyanka Chopra a brand ambassador forPond's,[21] and she then appeared in a mini-series of television commercials for another skin lightening product, 'White Beauty', alongsideSaif Ali Khan andNeha Dhupia; these advertisements, showing Priyanka's face with a clearly darker complexion against the visibly fairer Neha Dhupia, were widely criticised for perpetuating racism[22] and lowering the self-esteem of women and girls throughout India who were misled by HUL to believe that they needed to be white to be beautiful. The company rebranded the cream fromFair and Lovely toGlow and Lovely, removing the wordFair from the brand.
Several academic papers have pointed out the firm's continued use of theantibacterial agentTriclosan ('Active B') in India because it is under review by the AmericanFood and Drug Administration (US FDA).[23]
In March 2019 HUL's advertisement for its beverage Brooke Bond Red Label tea was criticised on social media. A companytweet referred to theKumbh Mela as a place where elderly people get abandoned by their family members.[24][25] This resulted in a severe backlash in the form of an adverse hashtagtrending on Twitter '#BoycottHindustanUnilever'.[26]
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In 2014, Hindustan Unilever Limited received Porter Prize for Creating Shared Value, awarded by the Institute for Competitiveness, India.[27] It ranked number one on the Forbes list of ‘Most Innovative Companies’ globally for 2014.[28] It also received an award as a 'Conscious Capitalist of the Year' at the 2013 Forbes India Leadership Awards.[29] Unilever was named the fourth most respected company in India in a survey conducted by Business World in 2013.[30]
In a 2015Nielsen campus track-business school survey, Hindustan Unilever was among the top employers of choice for B-school students graduating that year. It has often been called a 'Dream Employer' for application by B-School students in India.[31][32][33][34][35] In 2012, it was recognised as one of the world's most innovative companies by Forbes. With a ranking of number 6, it was the highest ranked FMCG company.[36]
HUL is one of the country's largest exporters; it has been recognised as a Golden Super Star Trading House by the Government of India.[37]
HUL is the market leader in Indian consumer products with presence in over 20 consumer categories such as soaps, tea, detergents and shampoos among others with over 700 million Indian consumers using its products. Sixteen of HUL's brands featured in theNielsen Corporation Brand Equity list of 100 Most Trusted Brands Annual Survey (2014), carried out by Brand Equity, a supplement ofThe Economic Times.[38]
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