The Hindu Business Line : HUL sees no slowdown in consumer goods offtake

Chennai, Nov. 3 Mr Nitin Paranjpe says he’s always asked this question these days: is there a slowdown in consumer spending given the gloomy economic scenario?

But, the CEO and Managing Director of India’s largest consumer goods company, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, is quite gung-ho. “All I can say is we have seen no evidence of reduced consumer spending. In fact, if you were to take published numbers from A.C. Nielsen, in the third quarter, markets have grown in all the categories we operate in at rates faster than they grew in the first or second quarter. That’s quite reassuring for us,” says Mr Paranjpe.

However, the nature of growth varies a bit, he says, in an interview to Business Line. In categories such as laundry and personal wash (toilet soaps), the bulk of the growth is coming out of increased prices with no volume growth, while in the rest of the categories such as personal care and beverages, there’s a good balance between price and volume growth.

“The second thing we are seeing is a balanced growth between urban and rural. After a very long time, both markets are growing at the same pace across geographies,” he says.

The markets, end of June, were growing at about 15 per cent, and a bit faster in the September quarter. Mr D. Sundaram, Vice-Chairman & CFO, HUL, says even internationally, many firms in categories such as basic health, hygiene, foods and nutrition which are very fundamental to people, are showing good growth as people do not want to take risks.

“Unilever too has reported almost 8 per cent growth. The stock market here also seems to be sensing this because we are one company which has gone counter to the market psyche,” he says.