Making business agile is our focus: Sanjiv Mehta

Interview with Managing Director, Hindustan Unilever

Hindustan Unilever (HUL)'s Managing Director Sanjiv Mehta talks about the company's performance at a media interaction. Edited excerpts:

What did you do to improve the volume growth?

Our focus is on simplifying the business and making it far more agile. Gone are the days when you could make a strategy and sit back and say you will run it for three years. You need a business that can change course very rapidly. In six months, we have rationalised about 20-25 per cent of our portfolio. We have targeted products that were non-performing. The second response was to bring the magic back into marketing with an innovative approach to it. The third was to leverage our direct coverage of three million outlets and drive sales throughput in these stores.

How long will your stock-keeping unit (SKU) rationalisation continue?

It will continue till the end of this (financial) year. We have to take a call on what to prune. We are not culling brands, but simply getting those SKUs out that are not performing in terms of sales. We will prudently take a call on what SKUs are working or not working for us and get the non-performers out.

Which are the areas you are investing in to maintain sales momentum?

We are investing in foods, beauty, digital and our go-to-market infrastructure and capability. We have a clear strategy on foods. For the last several quarters, we are seeing double-digit growth in foods. In the June quarter alone, it was 18.8 per cent growth that we saw in packaged foods led by brands Kissan, Knorr and Kwality Walls.

Will your focus shift to mass products?

That is not something we don't intend doing. While premium and discretionary categories continue to be soft, there are still segments that have done well. So, I don't think this allows us to ignore any segment.