More Stories

Informist, Tuesday, Jul. 28, 2026

 

Please click here to read all liners published on this story

--HUL: Allocating resources sharply behind high growth segments 
--CONTEXT: Comments by HUL mgmt in post-earnings press call 
--HUL: Monitoring distribution, consumer feedback for Minimalist 
--HUL: See Minimalist as a long-term growth story for co 
--HUL: See sunscreen pdts as a multi-year growth opportunity 
--HUL: Focusing on Lifebuoy soaps, more work needs to be done for the brand 
--HUL: Soaps category is seeing premiumisation at a structural level 
--HUL: See expansion of social-first brands in beauty category 
--HUL: Have significant digital-first business presence in beauty category 
--HUL: Simple brand is seeing strong double-digit volume growth 

 

MUMBAI – Fast moving consumer goods bellwether Hindustan Unilever Ltd. Tuesday said that the soaps business in India was undergoing premiumisation at a structural level, and its presence in the category through brands such as Pears and Dove gives it the firepower to capitalise on this trend. "These brands (Dove, Pears) are growing in double-digit, we are extremely well-placed to keep moving consumers up that value ladder," the company's Chief Executive Officer Priya Nair told reporters in a post-earnings briefing.

 

HUL sells bodysoaps under the personal care category, which contributed around 16% to the company's top line in the June quarter. In the reporting period, the FMCG major saw higher premiumisation in the soap category even as the personal category as a whole reported a low-single digit decline in underlying volume growth.

 

Rising prices of palm oil, a key input material for soaps and related products, pushed the company to hike prices in the June quarter. "The premium end of the market continues to grow strong double-digit. Body washes will continue to be competitive. It is on mass soaps that overall the category is seeing, you know, back-to-back inflation," Nair said. Volume compression in the soaps category is on account of price locking of these mass products, which tend to sell at INR 10 or INR 20.

 

Even as price hikes weigh on sales of mass-priced soaps, HUL is focusing on the bodywash category, which Nair says is under-penetrated. "(There is) huge headroom for us to premiumize the market from soap bars to body washes," she said. "We are doubling down significantly behind the market development efforts on body wash," she added.

 

Ahead of the press conference, the company reported a nearly 4% on-year decline in net profit to INR 26.31 billion for the June quarter while its revenue rose almost 10% on year to INR 166.57 billion. The net profit fell for the first time in seven quarters while its revenue growth hit a 13-quarter high. The company's sales were driven by a 5% growth in underlying volumes.

 

Speaking about its Lifebuoy soaps brand, Nair said the company was focusing and working on the brand. The company has seen a sequential improvement but said more work needs to be done for the brand.  

 

HUL saw strong demand during the quarter after it started focusing on high growth segments. "We are allocating our resources very sharply behind what we call our high growth segments," Niranjan Gupta, Hindustan Unilever's chief financial officer, said. "The areas which are low penetration and high growth is where we have sharpened our resource allocation," he said.

 

The company is also improving its distribution and go-to-market execution. For this, the company added a dedicated quick-commerce team to serve demand from the quick-commerce segment while it continues to add specialist organisations for specialist general trade channels.

 

HUL credited its continued investments in brands for its growth. The company spent over INR 15 billion during the quarter on advertising and promotions as an investment in its brands and channels. "We continue to double down behind market making. So in each of the segments, we've really doubled down our investments or sampling efforts behind the market making cells," Gupta said. The company continues to spend around 50% of its advertising and promotional spends towards digital channels.

 

For its recently-acquired skincare brand Minimalist, Gupta said HUL is monitoring the distribution, consumer feedback, and the innovation funnel along with growth. Minimalist delivered a double-digit growth for the June quarter with a sequential improvement and is likely to cross INR 8 billion-INR 9 billion of annual revenue run rate, implying a 40–50% on-year growth, Nair said. "Minimalist is a long-term growth story," Gupta said. "And there's huge opportunity for scaling up and expansion, both our portfolio distribution perspective." Minimalist brand has now expanded to general trade from pure quick-commerce with more than 30,000 stores.

 

The company raised prices of products across its portfolio during the reporting quarter, which helped the 10% rise in its revenue. Nair said HUL will monitor the impact of El Nino on the monsoon, especially in rural areas.

 

The company sees a multi-year growth opportunity for sunscreen products in India, which has less than 2% penetration so far. HUL had launched an INR 10 sunscreen pack earlier this year. Given the headroom for growth, the company plans to focus more on this business by 'democratising' access to these products.

 

Through its parent company Unilever Plc., the company brought in brands such as skincare brand Simple, which registered double-digit volume growth for the quarter. HUL expects this growth momentum to be sustained.

 

In India, the company further strengthened its omnichannel presence by growing distribution in general trade and continuing offline expansion of its digital-first brands, such as Minimalist and Simple. Given that the company has a significant digital-first business presence in its beauty segment, which is the company's second-biggest segment, Nair sees social-first brands expanding in the category. The digital-first business in the beauty segment has now crossed the annual revenue run rate of INR 20 billion.

Tuesday, shares of Hindustan Unilever closed at INR 2,022.70 on the National Stock Exchange, down 7% from Monday.  End

 

Reported by Anand JC and Simran Rede 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury and Rajeev Pai

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.