HUL's mass-market lag sank shares 20% as rivals rose — a new CEO now resets course

HUL, India's biggest FMCG company, spent the post-pandemic years doubling down on core mass-market brands — Wheel, Lifebuoy, Clinic Plus, Glow & Lovely — just as India's personal care market boomed with premium, venture-backed D2C brands. Underlying volume growth fell from 5% in 2022-23 to 2% the next year and stayed there, with sluggish rural demand and urban competition squeezing margins.

Investors noticed the disconnect: over three years HUL's shares tanked 20% while the Nifty 50 gained 24%. Rohit Jawa, appointed to a five-year term as managing director and CEO, exited after just two years amid the slump; Priya Nair, who once piloted HUL's Kan Khajura rural radio service, took over in August 2025.

The leadership bench had been thinning for years. Executives blamed decision-making power shifting outside India: Kartik Chandrasekhar left for Kellanova in 2024, Sandeep Kohli left Unilever Indonesia to lead Aditya Birla's Indriya, Prabha Narasimhan decamped to Colgate-Palmolive. Acquisitions fared no better: HUL paid ₹3,045 crore for Horlicks, Boost and Maltova in 2020 as the premium end shifted to protein powders and sugar-free foods; Unilever bought Dollar Shave Club in 2017 and sold it to Nexus Capital in 2023; Ben & Jerry's founders publicly accused management of stifling the brand.

Nair's reset is running on speed and premiumization: she scrapped the dual reporting structure that made managers answer to both India and London, hired four new chief marketing officers reporting to India business heads who report to her, and built a dedicated quick-commerce organization (the channel is about 3% of revenue). The company committed ₹2,000 crore of capex to premium beauty and home care formats, doubled digital to 40% of media spend, and now owns 90.5% of skincare brand Minimalist's parent after Unilever Ventures' early bet.

Shares tanked 20% in three years while the Nifty 50 gained 24%; ₹3,045 crore paid for Horlicks just as premium demand shifted to protein powders

The post-pandemic strategy leaned on legacy mass brands precisely when India's personal care market was premiumizing around D2C challengers.

Decision-making shifted to Unilever's global centres, slowing India-for-India calls and pushing a generation of homegrown leaders out the door.

Big acquisitions misread the premium shift: Horlicks landed just as consumers moved toward protein powders and sugar-free foods.

Premium lines still lose shelf economics — distributors stock fast-turning ₹10 Lux soaps over slower premium body washes, capping the strategy's pace.

A distribution machine built for the mass market can miss the premium wave entirely — and a company that trains an industry's leaders still can't keep its own bench.

Nair told analysts in February that the new structure would 'strengthen empowerment, accelerate decision-making and ensure more India-for-India choices', and Unilever CEO Fernando Fernandez named India one of two anchor markets, keeping Kissan and Bru out of the $44.8 billion McCormick food deal. Market watchers caution that premiumization is a time-consuming effort every large FMCG rival — Tata Consumer Products, Marico — is attempting at once.