HUL says India continues to be among top 3 priority markets for Unilever

Hindustan Unilever said India continues to be among the top three priority markets for its parent Unilever, which has announced an organisational restructuring

Hindustan Unilever on Tuesday said India continues to be among the top three priority markets for its parent Unilever, which has announced an organisational restructuring that will result in 1,500 job cuts across senior and junior management roles globally.

When reached out for comments on whether Unilever's proposed new organisational model, that will result in "reduction in senior management roles of around 15 per cent and more junior management roles by 5 per cent, equivalent to around 1,500 roles globally", will impact the Indian operations, an HUL spokesperson said, "Changes, if any, will be announced in due course."

The spokesperson further asserted, "India has been and continues to be one of the three top priority markets for Unilever. We will continue to have executive leadership of Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director under the supervision and guidance of the HUL Board."

Stating that HUL has a mutually beneficial and interdependent relationship with the Unilever Group, bringing the best of trends, innovations and capabilities to the Indian market, the spokesperson said, "We will continue to leverage this organisation structure to serve our consumers and customers even better."

Unilever has been focused on accelerating growth within its existing business. The new organisation structure announced by Unilever is intended to enhance business performance.

"This operating model will drive greater agility, improve category focus and strengthen accountability," the spokesperson added.

Unilever, in a statement, said as part of the reorganisation, Nitin Paranjpe, Chief Operating Officer (COO), will take on a new role as Chief Transformation Officer and Chief People Officer, leading the business transformation, and heading the HR function.

On the other hand, Sunny Jain, President - Beauty and Personal Care, has decided to leave Unilever to set up an investment fund in technology megatrends.

Unilever said it will move away from its current matrix structure and will be organised around five distinct business groups -- beauty and wellbeing; personal care; home care, nutrition; and ice cream -- with each business group to be fully responsible and accountable for their strategy, growth, and profit delivery globally.

Unilever CEO Alan Jope said the new organisational model has been developed over the last year and is designed to continue the step-up the company is seeing in the performance of its business.

"Our moving to five category-focused business groups will enable us to be more responsive to consumer and channel trends, with crystal-clear accountability for delivery. Growth remains our top priority and these changes will underpin our pursuit of this," Jope said.