“FMCG FASCINATOR”
INCEPTION:
William Hesketh Lever and James Darcy Lever
founded a soap manufacturing company named Lever Brothers in 1885 and in 1888
they shipped crates full of sunlight soaps to Kolkata harbour and thus began
the era of FMCG marketing in India. Lever brothers merged with Margarine Unie
in 1930 and formed Unilever. Unilever set up its first Indian subsidiary in
Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Company in 1931 then Lever Brothers India
Limited in 1933 and United Traders Limited in 1935. Hindustan Lever Limited was
formed with the merger of above three companies in 1956 and in 2007 the
company’s name was changed to Hindustan Unilever Limited.
EARLY YEARS:
The Company offered 10% of its stake to Indian
public and became the first Indian subsidiary to have done so. The company
internationally acquired Brooke Bond & Co. India Limited, functioning since
1900, in 1984 and Pond’s India Limited, functioning since 1947, in 1986. Since
its inception the company has performed exceptionally well in the sector and
grew exponentially along with series of mergers & acquisitions waiting in
near future. Company was manufacturing soaps and beauty products along with tea
products then.
GROWTH:
The Company later adopted strategy of
aggressive mergers & acquisitions, after the liberalization of the Indian
economy started in 1991, which is clearly shown as below:
- · Merger with TOMCO and Lakme Limited in 1993 and 1996 respectively.
- · Acquisition of Kissan from UB Group and Dollops ice cream from Cadbury in 1993.
- · Merger with Kimberly Clark Corporation and Kwality Ice cream group in 1994.
- · Brooke Bond India and Lipton India merged and incorporated BBIL
- · BBIL later merged with HUL in 1996 and Pond’s India merged in 1998
Above stated mergers lead the
company to become FMCG giant and meanwhile the company launched its subsidiary
in Nepal namely, Unilever Nepal Limited the factory of which manufactures
products like Soaps, Detergents and personal products for HUL for the purpose
of exporting them to India and selling in domestic market as well. The company
was awarded with 74% stake in Modern Foods in 2000 and in 2002 HUL acquired the
remaining stake. The company continued to acquire various companies and added
more products to its product line. The company posted net profits of Rs.
1641.31 Crores, growth of 25.28% for the year ended December, 2001 and the
growth spree continued. HUL is also a front runner in CSR as it had launched
projects like Project Shakti and adopted Shaktiman Model. The company has
research centres at Mumbai and Bangalore for innovating new products.
CURRENT STATUS & FUTURE:
The
Company currently has over 35 brands under its umbrella and it has flourished
under the leadership of Chairman, Harish Manwani and CEO & MD, Nitin
Paranjpe with the products in Home & Personal Care and Food & Beverages
market. The company recorded revenue of Rs. 19987.14 Crore for the year ended
March 2011 and with an employee base of over 65000 people. It holds the record
of consistently having largest number of its brands featuring in the list of
Top 50 Most Trusted Brands. Company’s distributes its products through a
channel of 6.3 million outlets and over 700 million people across the country
use their product which implies the mammoth operations and reach of the
company.
The company’s products are as
follows:
- · Kwality Wall's ice cream and Knorr soups & meal makers,
- · Soaps such as Lifebuoy, Lux, Pears, Breeze, Liril, Rexona, Hamam and Moti
- · Pure it water purifier and teas like Lipton tea, Brooke tea, Bru coffee
- · Mouth products such as Pepsodent and Close Up toothpaste and brushes
- · Detergents like Surf, Rin and Wheel laundry detergents, Kissan squashes and jams, Annapurna salt and atta
- · Beauty products such as Pond's talc and creams, Vaseline lotions, Fair and Lovely creams, Lakmé beauty products, Clear, Clinic Plus, Clinic All Clear, Sunsilk and Dove shampoos
- · Lastly Vim dish wash, Ala bleach, Domex disinfectant, Modern Bread, Axe deosprays and Comfort fabric softeners.
The Company has dominated the
FMCG sector in the country and is expected to lead the sector in the future as
well along with the strategy of cutting down its products with losses from the
product line and the company has decided to continue with the products only
that are profits yielding. Thus the company is expected to even grow further
and expand itself globally as well.
TRIVIA: HUL has consistently had largest
number of its brands to have
featured in the list of Top 50 Most Trusted Brands.
featured in the list of Top 50 Most Trusted Brands.
“TENDER TEXTILE”
ARVIND MILLS LIMITED
INCEPTION:
Kasturbhai Lalbhai, the Padma Bhushan awardee
and leading industrialist, along with his two brothers Narottambhai Lalbhai and
Chimanbhai Lalbhai established a textile company called Arvind Mills Limited in
1931 at Ahmedabad with a view of manufacturing high-end superfine fabrics. The Company
was started with share capital of US$55000 along with 52,560 ring spindles,
2552 doubling spindles and 1122 looms, which show huge investment and
operations of the company. The Company was among a few companies equipped with
spinning and weaving facilities along with dyeing, bleaching, finishing and
mercerizing facilities.
EARLY YEARS:
The Company recorded net profit of Rs. 2.82
lakh in the year 1934 with the sales of Rs. 45.76 lakh. The Company year by
year kept on producing high quality fabrics and was recognised as one of the
foremost textile companies in India. The founder Kasturbhai Lalbhai with a
dream of making India self reliant and create wealth in rural areas started the
companies Arvind Mills Limited and Atul Limited, currently one of India’s
largest integrated chemical companies. Kasturbhai served as a director of the
Reserve Bank of India from 1937 to 1949 and during this tenure he started many
educational institutes. The land for construction of world class institute
IIM-A was donated by Kasturbhai. Thus the company was indulged in various other
activities alongside its core business.
GROWTH:
It was the year 1980 when Arvind recorded
highest profitability even though surrounded by prevalent major crisis in the
textile industry. Arvind adopted new strategy called - Reno Vision in the same
year which meant to simply look at the issues in different way. Arvind, in
1987, entered into the export market under two sections – Denim for leisure and
Denim for fashion wear along with high quality fabrics for cotton trousers and
shirts. In 1991, Arvind emerged as the third largest manufacturer of denim in
the world with the production of 1000 million meters of denim per year. In
1994, operations of the company were divided into three units – Textile,
Telecom and Garments followed by the launch of ready to stitch jeans brand “Ruf
& Tuf” and Newport in 1995. The Company had taken large amount of debts for
financing its needs of production of denims in early 1990s and in late 1990s
Arvind started facing financial troubles.
The Company in 1997 set up country’s largest
state-of-the-art facility for shirting, gabardine and knits at Santej and it
doubled the capacity of its facility at Bangalore to produce Lee jeans. As a
result of financial troubles Arvind defaulted on payment of US$ 125 million and
hence needed debt capital restructuring. Arvind carried out the exercise with
great accuracy and the results were outstanding as for Q3 ended December, 2003
the company witnessed growth of 280% in its demand and CRISIL rated it as “P1+”
rating for its commercial paper. Meanwhile Arvind emphasized on exports and
tied-up with major companies and in 2007, it established Mega Mart with a view
of venturing into retail business.
CURRENT STATUS:
Currently the company has brands – Flying
Machine, Newport, Excalibur and Ruf&Tuf. Moreover, the company offers its
garment package to world renowned brands like Lee, Wrangler, Arrow and Tommy
Hilfiger. Arvind posted profits of Rs. 1348 million for the year ended March,
2011 with the headcount of over 26000 employees under the leadership of Mr.
Sanjay Lalbhai, CMD - Arvind Mills Limited.
Arvind Mills Limited has various business
divisions currently such as:
·
Denims
·
Woven
Fabrics
·
Knit
Fabrics
·
The
Arvind Brands
·
Mega
Mart Retail
·
Engineering
·
Telecom
·
Real
Estate
·
The
Arvind Store
Arvind Mills Limited currently is India’s
largest denim manufacturer and fourth largest producer and exporter of denim in
the world. The Company has entered into real estate business by entering into
strategic partnership with Tata Housing Development, India’s leading real
estate development company, to develop integrated township project near
Ahmedabad. Arvind has forayed into various businesses and will continue to do
so along with a vision set to become the largest apparel brands company in
India.
TRIVIA: Arvind Mills Limited is India’s largest denim manufacturing
company and it exports its products to international brands such
as Lee, Wrangler, Arrow and Tommy Hilfiger
company and it exports its products to international brands such
as Lee, Wrangler, Arrow and Tommy Hilfiger
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