HUL rejigs management, appoints 2 key executives

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) on Wednesday rejigged its management committee and announced the appointment of two key executives.

The maker of Dove shampoo said Madhusudhan Rao will be appointed as executive director, Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care and Deepak Subramanian will take over the role of executive director, Home Care.

Rao takes over from Priya Nair who will move into her new global role as Beauty & Wellbeing chief marketing officer. Subramanian will take charge from Prabha Narasimhan, who has decided to leave the company to pursue an external opportunity.

Rao, who is currently executive vice-president – Home and Hygiene, joined HUL in 1991. In his over 30 years of experience with the company, he has worked in marketing, customer development and brand development roles across geographies. In his current role, Rao helped shape the Home & Hygiene category.

Subramanian, currently vice-president Home Care, South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand (SEAA) and global head, Fabric Enhancers, joined HUL in 1995 as a management trainee. From being the marketing manager for Kissan in India and the regional brand director for Vitality Foods, Subramanian moved on to become the vice president for Foods & Refreshment for Central & Eastern Europe.

In his current role, Subramanian significantly improved the profitability of the business, while strengthening top-line growth, the company said. In his global role, he helped transform the fabric enhancers category by driving innovations and re-positioning the brands to have more social impact.

Commenting on the appointment of Rao and Subramanian, Sanjiv Mehta, chairman and managing director at HUL, said: “Madhusudhan has a successful track record in a variety of operational and strategic roles... Deepak has championed innovation and sustainable strategies to significantly improve brand equity and deliver growth. He has demonstrated superior business acumen in building new categories, primarily in start-up business verticals.”

The rejig comes at a time when India's fast moving consumer goods industry witnessed volume consumption de-growth in both urban and rural markets in the October-December period as high inflation levels forced FMCG companies to hike prices for the third straight quarter.

Apart from battling an all-time high inflation, low volume growth and degrowth in rural markets, FMCG giant, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), in the third quarter of FY22 also had to deal with the resentment of its general trade distributors.

In Q3 of FY22, HUL has reported a domestic consumer growth of 11% and profit after tax growth of 17%. Its volume growth was at 2%, and Mehta had claimed that in the current inflationary environment, the FMCG major has done better than its peers in terms of volume growth. "These are unprecedented times and we have never seen such high inflation," Mehta had said.