A

Project on
Product Line & Product Mix Of HUL

S.S. JAIN SUBODH MANAGEMENT

INSTITUTE
(2020-2021)

SUBMITTED BY SUBMITTED TO
Akshay Kumar Gupta Dr. Kaneenika Jain
MBA 1st Semester

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is not often in life that you get a chance of appreciating and expressing your
feelings in black and white to thank the people who have been a crucial part of
your successes, your accomplishments, and your being what you are today. I
take this opportunity to first of all thank the Faculty at S.S. Jain Subodh
Management Institute especially Dr. Raju Agarwal, Principal, and Dr.
Kaneenika Jain for inculcating and instilling in me the knowledge, learning,
will-power, values and the competitiveness and professionalism required by me
as a management student.

I would like to give special thanks to Dr. Kaneenika Jain (Faculty Guide) for
educating me silver lining in every dark cloud. Her enduring efforts, guidance,
patience and enthusiasm have given a sense of direction and purposefulness to
this project and ultimately made it a success. I express my sincere and heartiest
thanks to everyone who has contributed towards the successful completion of
the Project.

Last but not the least; I would like to thank my family: my parents, for
supporting me spiritually throughout my life. The errors and inconsistencies
remain my own.

Akshay Kumar Gupta

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 Project Report on the Product Lines
& Product Mix of HUL
HUL’s journey began in 1933, when the company was incorporated and it
celebrated its platinum jubilee in 2008. The company claims to have by touched
the lives of 700 million Indians, looking after their nutrition, hygiene and
personal care and making them feel good, look good and get more out of life. In
2007 Hindustan Lever Limited became HUL, showing its alignment with the
parent company.

Its corporate mission was also redefined (Adding vitality to life’). Today, HUL
is a pre-eminent corporation and its brands are household names across the
country. HUL is undoubtedly the company that has virtually shaped India’s
FMCG market over the decades. The company has built some of the most
successful brands in India and many of its advertising campaigns have become
part of the country’s advertising folklore.

The company operates through two major divisions:

Food and beverages (F&B) and home and personal care (HPC) products.

(i) Food and Beverages Division:

Within the F&B division, the company markets ice creams. As the Indian
branch of Unilever, the largest ice cream manufacturer in the world, a number
of its brands are available in more than 90 countries. International brands
include Carted’ Or, Cornetto, Magnum, Solero and Vienetta.

Other brands are more regional, such as Kwality-Walls in India; Algida,

Langnese, Ola and Wall’s in Europe; and Ben & Jerry’s, Good Humor and
Breyers in the US.

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The division also sells tea, of which it markets under seven brands: Red Label,
Taaza, Al, 3 Roses, Super Dust, Top Star and Ruby Dust. The company also
markets Yellow Label and Green Label teas and has also launched New Lipton
Taaza and FX Tazgi Dust Tea. The division’s coffee business, comprising Bru
Instant Coffee and Deluxe Green Label Roast & Ground Coffee, is the market
leader in India.

Bru Expresso is an innovative coffee pre-mix that delivers creamy, frothy

coffee. In order to strengthen its share of the premium-segment roast and
ground coffee market, a new product, Brooke Bond Green Label Classic, was
also launched.

The F&B division also includes the Kissan range of culinary products, which
comprises jams, squashes, tomato ketchups, pureees, and cooking pastes. The
company has also launched sachet packs for jams and squashes to target new
users. The business is backed by contract farming in Punjab and Karnataka.

Overall, beverages and ice creams continued to grow in double digits in 2008-9;
the former driven by sharp price hikes and the latter by healthy volume off take.
However, processed foods slowed down to single digits for the first time since
the September 2005 quarter. The company’s conscious strategy to exit non-core,
low profit margin commodity export business led to a 45 per cent decline in
export revenues.

(ii) Home and Personal Care Division:

In the HPC Division, HUL’s hair care brands include Clinic, Sunsilk, Lux and
Organics shampoos and Clinic Plus, Clinic All Clear, Cococare and Nihar hair
oils. In the oral care sector of the division, its portfolio comprises Close- up and
Pepsodent toothpastes, toothbrushes and toothpowders. Close-up Oxy Fresh was
launched in 1999.

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Another sector of the division is skincare. Hindustan Lever markets Fair &
Lovely skin cream and lotion, the largest selling skincare product in India. The
other major skincare franchises are Pond’s, Vaseline, Lakme and Pears.
Additional ranges in the division include colour cosmetics, for which the
company markets the Lakme, Orchids and Elle-18 ranges; and deodorants and
fragrances, including brands such as Rexona, Ivana, Shie, Elle-18 and Axe.

HUL’s brands and people have its unparalleled strengths and they delivered
very good results in 2007-8. For the year 2007, the company achieved an
overall turnover growth of 13.3 per cent; both HPC and the foods businesses
grew by 12.3 and 20.2 per cent, respectively. Profit After Tax (PAT) registered
a growth of 14.9 per cent.

While analysing the company’s performance in March 2009, personal care

offsets soaps and detergents’ growth in HPC which increased by 11.5 per cent.
Foods went up by 13.2 per cent and exports were down by 45 per cent,
restricting the overall revenue growth to 6 per cent.

Lower input costs aided by cost reduction measures and lower taxes improved
profitability from core operations. Exceptional items in the form of incremental
provision for retirement benefits, restructuring costs and provision for
remediation of a site affected bottom line.

Overall volumes declined by 4 per cent on account of destocking at trade level

in anticipation of further price action by the company, consolidation in modern
trade and lacklustre performance by the oral care segment.

(iii) Other Businesses:

However, the ‘Other’ business, mainly comprising bottled water, increased by
27.6 per cent with Pureit becoming a billion brand (l million units) in financial
year of 2009 (15 months). Despite healthy operating profits and lower tax
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provision during the quarter, the net profit increased by a meager 3.7 per cent
due to exceptional items, namely incremental provision for retirement benefits,
restructuring costs and provision for remediation of a site.

HUL has acknowledged down-trading as being one of the factors responsible

for slower volume growth and eroding market share in a few categories in first
quarter of financial year of 2009. The management, however, remained
confident of being able to drive profitability and recoup its lost market share by
increasing grammage and effecting pricing cuts in mass brands.

Advertising expenses dropped by 37 bps as a percentage of sales, growing by

only 3 per cent y-o-y HUL’s management, however, pointed out that media
spends had increased by 27 per cent, while below- the-line promotional
activities were scaled down.

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PRODUCT MIX