Brands
Hul eyes premium category growth with Rs 2,000 crore production boost
The company focuses on high-growth beauty, wellbeing and home care liquid categories
MUMBAI:Â Hindustan Unilever Limited (Hul) has announced a significant investment of Rs 2,000 crore to expand its manufacturing capacity over the next two years. The capital will be used to bolster production in fast-growing premium sectors, specifically within beauty, wellbeing, and home care liquids.
This move aligns with the company’s strategy to place larger bets on high-demand areas. By focusing on premium skin care, hair care, and liquid detergents, Hul aims to strengthen its position in markets where consumer preferences are shifting toward more specialised products.
The expansion will take place across multiple locations and will integrate advanced technology into the production process:
- Efficiency: Hul will use automation and digital tools to create a more agile supply chain, allowing for a quicker response to changing consumer trends.
- Sustainability: In line with the company’s environmental goals, the new facilities are designed to operate on 100 per cent renewable energy.
- Future-proofing: The investment aims to build a manufacturing network capable of supporting emerging digital sales channels and new product formats.
Hul chief executive officer and managing director Priya Nair, stated that the investment reflects a commitment to scaling brands and creating new categories for the future. She noted that the initiative underscores the company’s focus on building a resilient, technology-enabled supply chain that delivers better value to its customers.
By expanding its capacity in these specific segments, Hul is positioning itself to lead the next phase of growth in the Indian consumer goods market.
Brands
Godrej clarifies ‘GI’ identifier after logo similarity debate
Says GI is not a logo, will not replace Godrej signature across products.
MUMBAI: In a branding storm where shapes did the talking, Godrej is now spelling things out. Godrej Industries Group (GIG) has issued a clarification on its newly introduced ‘GI’ identifier, addressing questions around its purpose and design following a wave of online criticism. At the centre of the debate were two concerns: whether the new mark replaces the long-standing Godrej logo, and whether its geometric design mirrors other corporate identities.
The company has drawn a clear line. The Godrej signature logo, it said, remains unchanged and continues to be the sole logo across all consumer-facing products and services. The ‘GI’ mark, by contrast, is not a logo but a corporate group identifier intended for use alongside the Godrej signature or company name, and aimed at stakeholders such as investors, media and talent rather than consumers.
The need for such a distinction stems from the 2024 restructuring of the broader Godrej Group into two separate business entities. With both continuing to operate under the same Godrej name and signature, the identifier is positioned as a way to differentiate the Godrej Industries Group at a corporate level.
The rollout, however, triggered a broader conversation on design originality. Critics pointed to similarities between the GI mark’s geometric composition and logos used by companies globally, raising questions about distinctiveness.
Responding to this, GIG said its intellectual property and legal review found that such overlaps are common in minimalist, geometry-led design systems. Basic forms such as circles and rectangles appear across dozens of brand identities worldwide, the company noted.
It added that the identifier emerged from an extensive design process and was chosen for its simplicity, allowing it to sit alongside the Godrej signature without competing visually. While acknowledging that elemental shapes may appear less distinctive in isolation, the group emphasised that the mark is part of a broader identity system that includes a custom typeface, sonic branding and other proprietary elements.
Following legal and ethical assessments, the company said it found no impediment to using the identifier, reiterating that the GI mark is a corporate tool not a consumer-facing symbol.
In short, the logo isn’t changing but the conversation around it certainly has.
