Unilever in India: Beyond Project Millennium

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Today's market is very dynamic and increasingly competitive. We have confidence in our strategy and are learning to grow even in declining markets.

- M.S. Banga, Chairman, HLL¹

Introduction

In 2004, Unilever's Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), was the country's largest fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company. The company touched the lives of two out of three Indians and generated a combined volume of about 4 million tones and sales of Rs.10,000 crores. In 2002, the leading business magazine, Forbes Global, had once rated HLL as the best consumer household products company worldwide. Far Eastern Economic Review had rated HLL as India's most respected company2. Unilever, which held 51.55% of the equity of HLL was a Fortune 500 transnational, had operations in 300 subsidiary companies in about 100 countries worldwide with products on sale in a further 50 countries.

HLL held a pride of place in the Unilever global system. To maintain its growth momentum into the new millennium, HLL launched a restructuring program called Project Millennium in 2000. Project Millennium had successfully restructured HLL's portfolio. But growth had been hard to come by for HLL. In mid-2004, even after a major top management restructuring, it was not clear whether HLL would be able to get back to double-digit growth of the 1990s...

Excerpts >>

1] India Infoline News, 13th June 2003.

2] http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/ED23Df01.html

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