MAM
The HUL journey: A growth story powered by purpose, says CEO & MD Sanjiv Mehta
Mumbai: FMCG major Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) has become a Rs 50,000 crore turnover company, the first pure FMCG firm to achieve this milestone. The company’s revenues for the full year increased 11.3 percent to Rs 51,193 crore, as compared to its revenues of Rs 45,996 crore for FY21, a flat volume growth due to unprecedented inflation notwithstanding.
Sharing the news on LinkedIn, HUL CEO and managing director Sanjiv Mehta wrote: “The Hindustan Unilever journey has been a growth story powered by our purpose ‘To Make Sustainable Living Commonplace’.”
Calling the HUL of today “a perfect example of #ProfitsThroughPurpose,” Mehta stated that the results demonstrate how their “values & purpose-led, the future-fit business model delivers superior financial performance.”
“We have created a water potential of over 1.9 trillion litres by working in thousands of villages in India. Our carbon emissions from manufacturing have reduced by 94 per cent against the 2008 baseline,” detailed Mehta.
“We achieved plastic neutrality, empowered 1.6 lakh rural women micro-entrepreneurs through Project Shakti and have helped thousands of people living in the slums of Mumbai get a better life through Suvidha, our scalable community hygiene & sanitation centres. And during these last nine years, we have doubled our turnover, tripled our EBITDA, and quadrupled our market cap to over Rs five lakh crores or $70 billion,” he further shared.
The HUL executive additionally went on to thank all their consumers, stakeholders and employees for ‘believing in and unequivocally supporting’ the company along the way.
The company released its financial performance for the quarter and year ending 31 March on Wednesday.
“In challenging circumstances, we have grown competitively and protected our business model by maintaining margins in a healthy range,” Sanjiv Mehta commented, adding, “I am also pleased that we have become a Rs 50,000 crore turnover company in this fiscal. Our consistent performance is reflective of our strategic clarity, strength of our brands, operational excellence, and dynamic financial management of our business. While there are near-term concerns around significant inflation and slowing market growth, we are confident of the medium to long term prospects of the Indian FMCG sector and remain focused on delivering a consistent, competitive, profitable and responsible growth.”
The FMCG behemoth’s revenue from sales of products during the fourth quarter stood at Rs 13,468 crore, up 11 per cent, as compared to the corresponding period a year ago, HUL said in its regulatory filing.
The company now has 16 brands with a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore each and reported a 5.34 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit to Rs 2,307 crore for the fourth quarter ended in March 2022, a flat volume growth due to unprecedented inflation notwithstanding. The profit and revenues reported by the company were higher than analyst estimates.
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Home Care growth at 24 per cent was broad-based with a strong performance in fabric wash and household care category. Both categories grew in strong double-digits with all parts of the portfolio performing well. Liquids and fabric sensations continued to outperform driven by effective market development actions, the company stated.
Beauty and personal Care grew competitively at four per cent, while foods and refreshments grew five per cent on a very high prior-year comparator, driven by solid performance in beverages, foods, and ice-cream.
Skin Cleansing category delivered double-digit growth driven by pricing and led by strong performance in ‘Lux,’ ‘Dove,’ and ‘Pears.’ A calibrated approach towards price increase in skin cleansing and hair care has helped protect the FMCG’s business model even as vegetable oils continue to inflate at record levels. Skin care and colour cosmetics had a muted quarter with Covid-19 third wave and high inflation impacting discretionary consumption.
Meanwhile, HUL has consistently remained among the top-ten advertisers on television, according to Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) India’s report on advertising trends for week 16 (16 to 22 April). The FMCG giant had an advertising volume of over 4,775 seconds on the medium, which’s nearly equivalent to the sum of the next top four advertisers’ ad volumes.
MAM
Paramount set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $81 billion deal
Shareholders back merger, combined entity could reshape streaming and studios.
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… consolidation, Hollywood’s latest blockbuster might be happening off-screen. Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery have voted in favour of selling the company to Paramount in a deal valued at $81 billion rising to nearly $111 billion including debt setting the stage for one of the biggest shake-ups in modern media. The proposed merger, still subject to regulatory approvals, would bring together a vast portfolio spanning HBO Max, CNN, and franchises such as Harry Potter under the same umbrella as Paramount’s own heavyweights, including Top Gun and CBS.
At the heart of the deal is streaming scale. Executives have indicated plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single platform, potentially creating a stronger challenger to giants like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Current market data suggests HBO Max holds around 12 per cent of US on-demand subscriptions, compared to Paramount+’s 3 per cent, together still trailing Netflix’s 19 per cent and Disney’s combined 27 per cent via Disney+ and Hulu.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has signalled that while platforms may merge, HBO’s creative identity will remain intact, stating the brand should “stay HBO” even within a broader ecosystem.
Beyond streaming, the deal would redraw the map for film production. Combining two of Hollywood’s oldest studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the new entity aims to scale output to over 30 films annually, while maintaining a 45-day theatrical window. Warner Bros. currently commands around 21 per cent of the US box office, compared to Paramount’s 6 per cent, underscoring the strategic weight of the acquisition.
But scale comes with scrutiny. Critics warn that fewer players could mean reduced consumer choice, rising subscription costs, and potential job cuts as the combined company looks to streamline overlapping operations while managing billions in debt.
The news business, too, faces a reset. CNN would join forces at least structurally with Paramount-owned CBS, raising questions about editorial independence and positioning. The merger has already drawn political attention in the United States, particularly given perceived ties between the Ellison family and Donald Trump, though the company maintains that newsroom autonomy will be preserved.
If approved, the deal would mark another milestone in Hollywood’s consolidation wave shrinking the industry’s traditional “big six” studios to a “big four”, with Paramount joining Disney, Universal, and Sony at the top table.
In an industry built on storytelling, this merger may well become its most consequential plot twist yet.
