Hll Seeks Media Link-Ups, Has No Channel Plan

Hindustan Lever chairman M S Banga said here today that the fast moving consumer goods giant was looking at alliances with media companies. "We've made several initiatives in the last 12 to 18 months, we've consolidated out media buying and we're looking at a Pan Asian initiative. The latest is our (Unilever's) deal with MTV."

Banga was responding to a question on whether HLL's plan to launch a television channel had taken off. He said that he'd been misquoted on this and that HLL was not launching a TV channel.

Banga was meeting a group of journalists at HLL in Mumbai today along with Unillever chairman Niall W A Fitzgerald.

Later, HLL vice chairman M K Sharma clarified the HLL was in the process of striking broad alliances with electronic media groups such as Star TV and Zee, but would not take equity in them.

Meanwhile, Sharma said that HLL had not taken any decision on the laundrette project. HLL is running a pilot project in a Mumbai suburb in which it picks up and delivers clothes for washing. Sharma said that several issues had yet to be resolved.

The cost of delivery was high and this could confine the project to the well off. But if a higher percentage of the clothes washed were woollen clothes, the margins would be higher and the project could be more viable, he said. HLL had also to decide whether to target only upscale consumers or the mass market.