Primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject are generally not sufficient for a

Wikipedia article. Please add more appropriate citations from reliable sources. (July 2007)

Hindustan Unilever Limited

Type Public company BSE:HUL

Headquarters Mumbai, India

Industry Fast Moving Consumer Goods FMCG)

Home & Personal Care, Foods, Water

Products
Purifier

Parent Unilever Plc

Website www.hul.co.in

Hindustan Unilever Limited (abbreviated to HUL) (BSE: HUL) formerly Hindustan Lever
Limited, is India’s largest consumer products company and has an annual turnover of over Rs
13,000 crores (calendar year 2007)[1]. It was formed in 1933 as Lever Brothers India Limited
and came into being in 1956 as Hindustan Lever Limited through a merger of Lever Brothers,
Hindustan Vanaspati Mfg. Co. Ltd. and United Traders Ltd.. It is headquartered in Mumbai,
India and has an employee strength of over 15,000 employees and contributes for indirect
employment of over 52,000 people. The company was renamed in late June 2007 to
“Hindustan Unilever Limited”.

In 2007, Hindustan Unilever was rated as the most respected company in India for the past 25
years by Business World, one of India’s leading business magazines [2]. The rating was based
on a compilation of the magazines annual survey of India’s Most Reputed Companies over
the past 25 years. HUL is the market leader in Indian consumer products with presence in
over 20 consumer categories such as Soaps, Tea, Detergents and Shampoos amongst others
with over 700 million Indian consumers using its products. It has over 35 brands. Sixteen of
HUL’s brands featured in the AC Nielsen-Brand Equity list of 100 Most Trusted Brands
Annual Survey (2008) [3]. According to Brand Equity, HUL has the largest number of brands
in the Most Trusted Brands List. It’s a company that has consistently had the largest number
of brands in the Top 50 and in the Top 10 (with 4 brands).
Hindustan Unilever distribution covers over 1 million retails outlets across India directly and
its products are available in over 6.3 million outlets in India, i.e. nearly 80% of the retail
outlets in India. It has 39 factories in the country. Two out of three Indians use the company’s
products and HUL products have the largest consumer reach being available in over 80 per
cent of consumer homes across India.

The Anglo-Dutch company Unilever owns a majority stake (52%) in Hindustan Unilever
Limited. HUL was one of the eight Indian companies to be featured on the Forbes list of
World’s Most Reputed companies in 2007 [4].

Contents
[hide]

 1 History - Chronology
 2 Brands
 3 Leadership
 4 Mission
 5 Present Stature
 6 Controversy
o 6.1 Mercury pollution
o 6.2 Skin lightening cream
 7 See also
 8 Notes
 9 External links

[edit] History - Chronology

In the summer of 1888, visitors to the Kolkata harbour noticed crates full of Sunlight soap
bars, embossed with the words "Made in England by Lever Brothers". With it, began an era
of marketing branded Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG).

Soon after followed Lifebuoy in 1895 and other famous brands like Pears, Lux and Vim.
Vanaspati was launched in 1918 and the famous Dalda brand came to the market in 1937.

In 1931, Unilever set up its first Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing
Company, followed by Lever Brothers India Limited (1933) and United Traders Limited
(1935). These three companies merged to form HUL in November 1956; HUL offered 10%
of its equity to the Indian public, being the first among the foreign subsidiaries to do so.
Unilever now holds 52.10% equity in the company. The rest of the shareholding is distributed
among about 360,675 individual shareholders and financial institutions.

The erstwhile Brooke Bond's presence in India dates back to 1900. By 1903, the company
had launched Red Label tea in the country. In 1912, Brooke Bond & Co. India Limited was
formed. Brooke Bond joined the Unilever fold in 1984 through an international acquisition.
The erstwhile Lipton's links with India were forged in 1898. Unilever acquired Lipton in
1972, and in 1977 Lipton Tea (India) Limited was incorporated.
Pond's (India) Limited had been present in India since 1947. It joined the Unilever fold
through an international acquisition of Chesebrough Pond's USA in 1986.

Since the very early years, HUL has vigorously responded to the stimulus of economic
growth. The growth process has been accompanied by judicious diversification, always in
line with Indian opinions and aspirations.

The liberalisation of the Indian economy, started in 1991, clearly marked an inflexion in
HUL's and the Group's growth curve. Removal of the regulatory framework allowed the
company to explore every single product and opportunity segment, without any constraints
on production capacity.

Simultaneously, deregulation permitted alliances, acquisitions and mergers. In one of the

most visible and talked about events of India's corporate history, the erstwhile Tata Oil Mills
Company (TOMCO) merged with HUL, effective from April 1, 1993. In 1995, HUL and yet
another Tata company, Lakme Limited, formed a 50:50 joint venture, Lakme Unilever
Limited, to market Lakme's market-leading cosmetics and other appropriate products of both
the companies. Subsequently in 1998, Lakme Limited sold its brands to HUL and divested its
50% stake in the joint venture to the company.

HUL formed a 50:50 joint venture with the US-based Kimberly Clark Corporation in 1994,
Kimberly-Clark Lever Ltd, which markets Huggies Diapers and Kotex Sanitary Pads. HUL
has also set up a subsidiary in Nepal, Unilever Nepal Limited (UNL), and its factory
represents the largest manufacturing investment in the Himalayan kingdom. The UNL factory
manufactures HUL's products like Soaps, Detergents and Personal Products both for the
domestic market and exports to India.

The 1990s also witnessed a string of crucial mergers, acquisitions and alliances on the Foods
and Beverages front. In 1992, the erstwhile Brooke Bond acquired Kothari General Foods,
with significant interests in Instant Coffee. In 1993, it acquired the Kissan business from the
UB Group and the Dollops Icecream business from Cadbury India.

As a measure of backward integration, Tea Estates and Doom Dooma, two plantation
companies of Unilever, were merged with Brooke Bond. Then in July 1993, Brooke Bond
India and Lipton India merged to form Brooke Bond Lipton India Limited (BBLIL), enabling
greater focus and ensuring synergy in the traditional Beverages business. 1994 witnessed
BBLIL launching the Wall's range of Frozen Desserts. By the end of the year, the company
entered into a strategic alliance with the Kwality Icecream Group families and in 1995 the
Milkfood 100% Icecream marketing and distribution rights too were acquired.

Finally, BBLIL merged with HUL, with effect from January 1, 1996. The internal
restructuring culminated in the merger of Pond's (India) Limited (PIL) with HUL in 1998.
The two companies had significant overlaps in Personal Products, Speciality Chemicals and
Exports businesses, besides a common distribution system since 1993 for Personal Products.
The two also had a common management pool and a technology base. The amalgamation was
done to ensure for the Group, benefits from scale economies both in domestic and export
markets and enable it to fund investments required for aggressively building new categories.

In January 2000, in a historic step, the government decided to award 74 per cent equity in
Modern Foods to HUL, thereby beginning the divestment of government equity in public
sector undertakings (PSU) to private sector partners. HUL's entry into Bread is a strategic
extension of the company's wheat business. In 2002, HUL acquired the government's
remaining stake in Modern Foods.

In 2003, HUL acquired the Cooked Shrimp and Pasteurised Crabmeat business of the
Amalgam Group of Companies, a leader in value added Marine Products exports.[1]

[edit] Brands

Wheel Detergent ad in rural Nepal area.

The company has a distribution channel of 6.3 million outlets and owns 35 major Indian
brands.[5] Some of its brands include Kwality Wall's ice cream, Lifebuoy, Lux, Breeze, Liril,
Rexona, Hamam, Moti soaps, Pureit Water Purifier, Lipton tea, Brooke Bond tea, Bru Coffee,
Pepsodent and Close Up toothpaste and brushes, and Surf, Rin and Wheel laundry detergents,
Kissan squashes and jams, Annapurna salt and atta, Pond's talcs and creams, Vaseline lotions,
Fair & Lovely creams, Lakmé beauty products, Clinic Plus, Clinic All Clear, Sunsilk and
Dove shampoos, Vim dishwash, Ala bleach and Domex disinfectant.Rexona,Modern Bread
and Axe deosprays

[edit] Leadership
HUL has produced many business leaders for corporate India. It is referred to as a 'CEO
Factory' in the Indian press for the same reasons.[who?] It's leadership building potential was
recognized when it was ranked 4th in the Hewitt Global Leadership Survey 2007 with only
GE, P&G and Nokia ranking ahead of HUL in the ability to produce leaders with such
regularity.[6][7][8]

[edit] Mission
Unilever's mission is to add Vitality to life. We meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene,
and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.

[edit] Present Stature

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods
company, touching the lives of two out of three Indians with over 20 distinct categories in
Home & Personal Care Products and Foods & Beverages. They endow the company with a
scale of combined volumes of about 4 million tonnes and sales of nearly Rs.13718 crores.
HUL is also one of the country's largest exporters; it has been recognised as a Golden Super
Star Trading House by the Government of India.

The mission that inspires HUL's over 15,000 employees, including over 1,300 managers, is to
"add vitality to life." HUL meets everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene, and personal care
with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. It is a mission
HUL shares with its parent company, Unilever, which holds 52.10% of the equity. The rest of
the shareholding is distributed among 360,675 individual shareholders and financial
institutions.

HUL's brands - like Lifebuoy, Lux, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, Fair & Lovely, Pond's, Sunsilk,
Clinic Plus, Pepsodent, Close-up, Lakme, Brooke Bond, Kissan, Knorr-Annapurna, Kwality
Wall's – are household names across the country and span many categories - soaps,
detergents, personal products, tea, coffee, branded staples, ice cream and culinary products.
They are manufactured over 40 factories across India. The operations involve over 2,000
suppliers and associates. HUL's distribution network, comprising about 4,000 redistribution
stockists, covering 6.3 million retail outlets reaching the entire urban population, and about
250 million rural consumers.

HUL has traditionally been a company, which incorporates latest technology in all its
operations. The Hindustan Unilever Research Centre (HURC) was set up in 1958, and now
has facilities in Mumbai and Bangalore. HURC and the Global Technology Centres in India
have over 200 highly qualified scientists and technologists, many with post-doctoral
experience acquired in the US and Europe.

HUL believes that an organisation's worth is also in the service it renders to the community.
HUL is focusing on health & hygiene education, women empowerment, and water
management. It is also involved in education and rehabilitation of special or underprivileged
children, care for the destitute and HIV-positive, and rural development. HUL has also
responded in case of national calamities / adversities and contributes through various welfare
measures, most recent being the village built by HUL in earthquake affected Gujarat, and
relief & rehabilitation after the Tsunami caused devastation in South India.

In 2001, the company embarked on an ambitious programme, Shakti. Through Shakti, HUL
is creating micro-enterprise opportunities for rural women, thereby improving their livelihood
and the standard of living in rural communities. Shakti also includes health and hygiene
education through the Shakti Vani Programme, and creating access to relevant information
through the iShakti community portal. The program now covers 15 states in India and has
over 45,000 women entrepreneurs in its fold, reaching out to 135,000 villages and directly
reaching to 150 million rural consumers. By the end of 2010, Shakti aims to have 100,000
Shakti entrepreneurs covering 500,000 villages, touching the lives of over 600 million
people.

HUL is also running a rural health programme – Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetana. The
programme endeavours to induce adoption of hygienic practices among rural Indians and
aims to bring down the incidence of diarrhoea. It has already touched 84.6 million people in
approximately 43890 villages of 8 states. The vision is to make a billion Indians feel safe and
secure.
If Hindustan Unilever straddles the Indian corporate world, it is because of being single-
minded in identifying itself with Indian aspirations and needs in every walk of life. [2]

[edit] Controversy
[edit] Mercury pollution

In 2001 a thermometer factory in Kodaikanal run by Hindustan Unilever was accused of

dumping glass contaminated with mercury in municipal dumps, or selling it on to scrap
merchants unable to deal with it appropriately.[9]

[edit] Skin lightening cream

Hindustan Lever was forced to withdraw television advertisements for its women's skin-
lightening cream, Fair and Lovely. 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.[10]

[edit] See

mission
Unilever's mission is to add Vitality to life. We meet everyday needs for nutrition,
hygiene, and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get
more out of life.

Corporate purpose

Unilever's mission is to add Vitality to life. We meet everyday needs for

nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel
good, look good and get more out of life.

Our deep roots in local cultures and markets around the world give us our
strong relationship with consumers and are the foundation for our future
growth. We will bring our wealth of knowledge and international expertise
to the service of local consumers - a truly multi-local multinational.

Our long-term success requires a total commitment to exceptional  

standards of performance and productivity, to working together effectively,
and to a willingness to embrace new ideas and learn continuously.

To succeed also requires, we believe, the highest standards of corporate

behaviour towards everyone we work with, the communities we touch, and
the environment on which we have an impact.

This is our road to sustainable, profitable growth, creating long-term value

for our shareholders, our people, and our business partners.