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As Surf sales tide, HUL gets a 'Daag Achche hain' moment

On company's toothpaste brand Pepsodent and efforts being made for its revival, Manwani said, "We have to do more on Pepsodent and have now re-launced Pepsodent Core in the market."

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Looks like stains are a reason to rejoice for country's leading fast moving consumer goods company Hindustan Unilever which recently announced that its detergent brand 'Surf' has become its largest, crossing Rs 3,000-crore mark in the March 2016 quarter. Among the brands that are nearing that number, according to the HUL senior management are Fair & Lovely and Rin which are in the Rs 2,000 crore plus bracket. Other brands like Dove, Lux and Lifebuoy were in the Rs 1,000 crore plus bracket.

While Surf reaching a new status in the company's portfolio of brands was certainly a proud moment for HUL, company chairman Harish Manwani used this opportunity to also take a dig at competition saying it's an important point to be recognised. "People make companies out of Rs 1,000 crore. Every quarter we talk about growing at 6%, that's across 15 companies literally. And if you take Rs 1,000 crore as a big company we have plenty of Rs 1,000 crore brands in our portfolio," he said during the fourth-quarter results meet.

Interestingly, while HUL is growing its business competitively, the FMCG major also has certain brands in the portfolio that are not doing well. Responding to a dna query, Manwani said, "If you are asking me, are there certain categories in which we are not doing as well as we should, the answer is yes. Of course, how can it be that we are doing well across, we are not."

However, he did not give out details about brands that were under-performing. "We are not going to list out all of them. All I can tell you is that we have more brands that don't require fixing and there are a few that do. Two-three years ago, our biggest brand in the country Fair & Lovely was stalling. Today we've got it back. From time to time, all big brands occasionally come across some consequence because the market seems to be changing faster. And the question is not that you won't have a problem but how quickly you respond. I think we responded fast," said Manwani.

On company's toothpaste brand Pepsodent and efforts being made for its revival, Manwani said, "We have to do more on Pepsodent and have now re-launced Pepsodent Core in the market."

In a company note, research analyst Abneesh Roy, associate director - institutional equities, Edelweiss Securities Ltd, said that Pepsodent performance was muted. "Action taken to revive growth should show results soon. A re?launch is on the way with an entirely new mix and the team working on this is the same which is credited with Wheel turnaround. HUL wants to get the core right as it has around 20% market share," said Roy in the note.

Talking about brands / businesses that didn't do well for HUL, in the recent past, the company has exited non?core businesses including bread and bakery under the brand Modern. The rice exports business, which was being executed through its brands, Gold Seal Indus Valley and Rozana was sold to LT Foods, which owns the basmati rice brand Daawat.

On the way forward for such brands / businesses, Roy said, "HUL has plans to sell-off its non?core food products (atta, rice and salt brands) and focus on core strength – Kissan , Knorr and ice?cream brands."

Bad air? Breathe easy

For those who are worried sick about the air quality but find air-purifying devices too expensive and niche, Daikin has introduced an economical product in the market. The product has been designed keeping in mind the Indian environment taking into account indoor air pollutants like dust, bad odour, pollens and allergens which cause harm to asthmatic patients. Instead of HEPA, Daikin' innovative electric filter (Plasma Ioniser) ensures dust removal using electric charge thereby not hindering the passage of air thru filters. Priced between Rs 24,000 and Rs 26,000 (depending on tax structure) the air purifier imported from Thailand is being sold through the 300 Daikin stores across India.

According to Kanwaljeet Jawa, managing director, Daikin India, most people spend a lot of time indoors during summers in order to beat the heat and this exposes them to a host of pollutants as reports suggest that indoor air can be two to five times more polluted than the outside air. "It is imperative that measures are taken to keep the air inside as clean as possible. Our air purifier is targeted at helping people get rid of these pollutants and enable them to breathe fresh and pure air. It's six stage filtration removes all the pollutants and patented streamer discharge technology removes up to 99.99% of the viruses and germs. It is equipped with electrostatic dust collection pleated filters, which makes it very economical too," said Jawa.

Lenovo Zuk Z1

Lenovo India is launching a brand smartphone called ZUK Z1 that's packed with a host of innovation and creativity. Equipped with Lenovo's PerfectView (100% NTSC gamut) 13.97 (5.5") display, the smartphone offers a high 1500:1 contrast ratio and 450 Nits brightness. On the rear panel, the phone comes with a 13-megapixel camera with optical image stabilisation, dual-LED flash and an 8-megapixel selfie camera. The smartphone is backed by Cyanogen OS 12.1, a fluid operating system with a number of advanced features optimised for performance, power consumption, security and privacy.

Featuring 64GB eMMC 5.0 inbuilt storage, it is backed by a 2.5 GHz Snapdragon 801 processor along with 3GB RAM. With a 4100 mAh battery the phone comes equipped with USB 3.0 Type C with a reversible plug-in design which supports a blazing transfer speed of up to 5 Gbit/s. It also comes with an inbuilt 360-degree fingerprint reader button coupled with a 508 DPI high capacitive sensor that not only unlocks your phone but also makes multitasking easy. Available in white and grey colours and priced at Rs 13,499, the phone will be available via flash sales on Amazon.in starting May 19, 2016.

—Compiled by Ashish K Tiwari

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