Banga has hung up his Unilever boots and moved on to private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) as an operating partner.
Most of the changes have come about in the last four years and ITC is now reaping the dividends - standalone revenues from the non-cigarettes FMCG business have grown 40 per cent from FY17 to Rs 14,728.21 crore in FY21 and pre-tax profits 30 times to Rs 823.69 crore. The business accounted for 30.58 per cent of gross revenues and 4.85 per cent of pre-tax profits in FY21. "In the last four years, our margins in FMCG have gone up by 640 basis points (bps) and EBITDA margins have been moving up consistently. "We created levers that enabled a sustained growth trajectory," said ITC chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri. Puri took charge as the chief executive officer in 2017; in 2018, he was redesignated managing director and effective May 2019, he became chairman.
While reforms may translate into new opportunities for firms like ITC, Adani Wilmar and Reliance Retail, farmers are unlikely to use it for fear of upsetting commission agents.
Personal care products, the firm's most profitable segment, has been losing market share consistently over the past several quarters. The first quarter of this financial year hasn't been too exciting either. Domestic sales grew by 12.8 per cent, with underlying volume growth of about 2 per cent.
"If at all Godrej plans to buy out the global household business of Sara Lee, there will be strong competition from multinationals like Unilever and P&G. So, it is unlikely that GCPL will go ahead with it," a research analyst from Religare Capital Markets said.
The possibility of harassment by cops and fear of the unknown have forced a large number of truck drivers to abandon vehicles at the transport centres and flee home. Transport of goods remains badly hit as confusion remains among various stakeholders and road transport becomes the victim of disconnect between policy makers and local authorities.
The first to see price hikes will be soaps. In the past six months, domestic palm oil prices have increased by 46 per cent. Palm oil is a key input going into soaps.
The haircare brand, acquired for Rs 330 crore, fetches HUL around Rs 400 cr of revenue annually.
While a merger means HUL taking over GSK Consumer's assets, including its employees, any mention of retention of employees beyond the merger is missing in the deal.
The Sensex ended up 98 points at 19,927 and the Nifty gained 18 points to end at 5,973.
Tea estates across Assam and West Bengal, which were hitherto closed owing to the lockdown, opened in April.
The 50-share NSE Nifty stayed in the positive zone and retook the 9,900-mark to hit a high of 9,905.05 as buying paced up towards the fag end. It settled higher by 72.45 points, or 0.74 per cent, at 9,899.60.
At market close, the oil-to-telecom conglomerate's market capitalisation (m-cap) zoomed to Rs 10,01,555.42 crore on BSE.
Hindustan Unilever has many firsts to its credit. Now, it adds one more. India's largest fast-moving consumer goods company has found a new way of keeping in touch with its employees -- present and former.
From helping their employees infected with the Covid-19 virus to vaccinating them or supporting the families of those who might have succumbed to the infection, several companies in India are trying to do their bit in this difficult time. Some have even widened their support net to include all stakeholders as well as an extended community. To the families of the employees it lost to Covid-19, Noida-headquartered IT services and consulting company HCL Technologies is, for instance, paying salary for a year, medical insurance for three years and extending support for their children's education for five years.
147 domestic and international recruiters -- including Ola, Amazon, Flipkart and Xiaomi -- hired all 460 graduates.
T Thomas, former chairman of Hindustan Unilever, passed away March 2.
In the past four months, $7.5 billion has flowed back into domestic stocks, helping the benchmark indices bounce back more than 40 per cent from their 2020 lows.
After 42 years at Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and different roles across Unilever's global operations, Harish Munwani, 65, retired as HUL's non-executive chairman. A day before Manwani bid adieu at HUL's 85th annual general meeting on Friday, he spoke to Viveat Susan Pinto & Vishal Chhabria on what kept him going at the firm and the challenges that await HUL.
Let's take a look at per capita consumption of ice cream around the world, including India.
Companies whose products have not been picked up for distribution in Gujarat under a "non-cooperation movement" include Marico, Dabur, Emami, Britannia, Reckitt Benckiser, and Godrej Consumer Products.
After a gap of five years, Hindustan Unilever has bagged slot zero position on B-school campuses. In 2007, the company had slipped to number 14 on the recruiters' list of B-schools. "It's an improvement of our brand value and affirmation of our employer brand," says Leena Nair, executive director HR, Hindustan Unilever.
Kataria, 49, an IIT-XLRI alumnus, was quick to implement a number of initiatives during the Covid-19 crisis including launching D2C initiatives such as mobile stores, WhatsApp messaging, video calling and home deliveries. Kataria was also swift to recognise that stay-at-home consumers were keen to buy informal rather than formal footwear, launching new collections quickly to take advantage of this trend, says Viveat Susan Pinto.
HUL is all set to cut down on its managerial positions, with as many as 50 surplus managers losing their jobs.
HUL has recently developed a new process of manufacturing soap based on 'Plough Share Mixer' technology which eliminates the need for steam in soap making. The new technology cuts carbon emissions by 15,000 tons per year and HUL has been awarded carbon credits for this under the Clean Development Mechanism scheme operated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Clearly, the domestic market has taken sharp knocks in April, which is likely to be visible in May as well, said analysts tracking the market, as FMCG companies are grappling with improving capacity utilisation and dealing with labour shortage.
The footprints of Indian-origin corporate executives at multinationals is expanding, with Sandeep Kataria taking over the reins of footwear major Bata as its global chief executive officer. From FMCG majors to IT titans, Kataria joins the league of Indian-origin executives who have climbed the highest echelons of corporate across diverse sectors globally. From Nooyi to Pichai to Nadella, the list of such people at the helm of multi-billion dollar enterprises is long.
Mondelez has tied up with Warner Bros for its latest film Batman v/s Superman.
Larsen & Toubro, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, Tata Consultancy and Sun Pharma -- have made it to the list
Second-ranked L&T has been rated highest on leadership
A break-up of business shows that 75% of a firm's turnover is led by volume growth, while 25% is price-led. Companies such as Britannia, Nestl, Dabur, Marico, Kellogg, Parle Products, and Hindustan Unilever have increasingly focused on smaller packs of their key products, aimed at improving sales.
RIL was placed at number one position, followed by TCS, HDFC Bank, HUL, HDFC, ITC, State Bank of India, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank and ICICI Bank.
Investors booked profits in recent gainers dragging the indices into losses
For a product initially positioned as a "closet mate" which could help improve a woman's marital prospects, HUL Chairman Sanjiv Mehta says the communication now is all about women's empowerment.
The transaction is an all equity merger with 4.39 shares of HUL being allotted for every share in GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare India
Delay in demand recovery and higher stock valuations mean low safety margin, say analysts.
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Rather than move up the echelons of finance management, he was part of crisis management at his first employer, and then the commercial head of home and personal care products and, lately, chairman of Middle East and North Africa for Unilever, the second-largest fast-moving consumer goods company in the world.
Share markets will have only three trading days this week with Monday and Wednesday being holidays due to general elections in Mumbai and Maharashtra Day, respectively.
Mukesh Ambani is stringing in new partnerships within the Reliance ecosystem with the best in global business -- from Facebook, Google and Microsoft to umpteen sovereign wealth funds and a soon-to-be-declared strategic partner in a big global retailer, notes Shailesh Dobhal.
The breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned negative. On the BSE, 1,581 shares declined and 1,246 shares fell. A total of 165 shares were unchanged.
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