HUL to launch 'Puriet' in Latin America, Africa

FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever (HUL) today said it plans to expand the presence of its water purifier 'Puriet' in the overseas markets, and will launch it Latin America and Africa, besides looking at more South-East Asian nations.

"After the success in India, we intend to take Puriet global. We are looking at markets in South-East Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa," HUL Chairman Harish Manwani told reporters at the India Economic Submit.

The company has recently launched the water purifier in Bangladesh and Indonesia. It, however, did not give details by when the firm plans to take it to the other markets.

"The target is to protect half a billion people across the world by 2020. In India, today Pureit is protecting 15 million people," Manwani said.

HUL made a pan-India launch of 'Pureit' two years back. It is now present in 3 million homes covering 1,500 towns and cities in India. Puriet was first launched in 2004 in Chennai.

The company had then said that it aims to touch 500 million lives across the country.

At present, the water purifier is available in three versions, priced between Rs 1,000 and Rs 6,900, and are sold through both direct-to-home channel and through retail outlets.

Besides, the company also announced the launch of its 'Sustainable Living Plan', which outlines its effort to halve the greenhouse gas emissions, water and waste in its direct operations, and also by its suppliers and consumers.

As per the plan, the company expects sourcing 100 per cent of its agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2015 and making safe drinking water available to half a billion people by extending sales of its Pureit water purifier from India to other countries.

The company said it will work with Oxfam, Rainforest Alliance and others, to link over 500,000 smallholder farmers and small-scale distributors into its supply chain.