After 46 years, HUL has a new address

About 46 years after first occupying the Backbay Reclamation office, near Churchgate station in South Mumbai, Hindustan Unilever will move to the suburbs.

The country's largest advertiser will have a new address, at Chakala in Andheri, a 12.6-acre campus that can house 1,700 people. The campus will buzz with activity beginning January 25. That’s the first day for the staff at the new office, says a company spokesperson.

The company will lease out its existing office premises at Backbay Reclamation. The office, an imposing stone structure, could house about 800-900 people, small for the company's growing needs. The fast-moving consumer goods company needed a larger space to occupy staff located not only at its Backbay office but also those scattered across the city at a few other locations, the spokersperson says. “The property at Andheri fit the bill,” he says. “It was a premise we owned. Our research & development team sat there. Most of them have now moved to Bangalore. So, we can station our corporate and technical teams at the Andheri office.”

This way, the company has been able to get its staff in the city under one roof, he adds. So, too, in Bangalore, where the company's research division will be sitting under one roof.

The campus at Andheri, says the spokersperson, is state-of-the-art, with adequate space for parking, free movement of people, recreational facilities, etc. The built-up area of the four-storeyed corporate office at the campus is 600,000 sq ft. There are other buildings such as a high-tech training centre, laboratories, pilot plant, etc.

Doing up this place has come at a price, but the company spokesperson refused to be drawn into a conversation about it. For now, his colleagues and he are too busy shifting from Backbay to Andheri.