HUL executives see 27-46% pay rises

The country’s largest fast-moving consumer goods company (FMCG), Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), gave some of its top executives pay rises of 43 to 46 per cent in the financial year 2012-13 as the firm recovered from three quarters of low volume growth to post impressive numbers in the three months ended March 2013. HUL’s just-released annual report for FY13 shows chief financial officer Sridhar Ramamurthy got a pay rise of 46.3 per cent, taking his salary to Rs 5.96 crore from Rs 3.2 crore a year ago.

HUL’s executive director for home & personal care, Hemant Bakshi, who replaced Gopal Vittal as head of HPC in the year under review, saw a 43.19 per cent salary hike, taking his remuneration to Rs 5.51 crore versus Rs 3.13 crore in FY12.  Pradeep Banerjee, executive director, supply chain, another key functionary at the FMCG company, walked away with a pay hike of 27.29 per cent taking his salary to Rs 4.58 crore from Rs 3.33 crore a year ago. HUL’s managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) Nitin Paranjpe, however, saw a rise of just about four per cent during the year, according to the annual report, taking his salary to Rs 10.12 crore from Rs 9.74 crore a year ago, but his remuneration was still higher than the pay packets of his counterparts in the industry.

Consider this: Archrival ITC paid its chairman Y C Deveshwar a salary of Rs 9.93 crore for 2012-13, marginally higher than the Rs 9.85 crore he took home in 2011-12.  Antonio Helio Waszyk, Nestle India MD, saw his salary swell by nearly 10 per cent to Rs 9.46 crore for the calendar year 2012 (the company has a January-December accounting year) versus Rs 8.52 crore a year ago. And Sunil Duggal, CEO, Dabur India, took home a pay package of Rs 5.53 crore versus Rs 5.08 crore a year before.

But some FMCG bosses were not as lucky, seeing their salaries slide for the period under review. Zubair Ahmed, MD of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, the maker of brands such as Horlicks, Eno and Sendodyne, saw his salary come down marginally to Rs 5.23 crore for the 2012 calendar year versus Rs 5.7 crore a year ago.

Anand Kripalu, president, India and Southeast Asia, Mondelez International saw a 35 per cent pay cut in his salary to Rs 7.14 crore in FY12 (the company has a January-December accounting year), as the company struggled with slowing sales and profit growth for the period.

Cadbury India, which has consistently grown by over 25 to 30 per cent in previous years, experienced the first hints of a slowdown in FY12, seeing its revenues increase by just 20.8 per cent to Rs 4,065 crore, its lowest growth rate since 2006.

Profit after tax increased just 2.1 per cent to Rs 303.4 crore for the period under review as consumers cut back on discretionary spends on account of high food inflation.