HUL's mkt share improves but challenges lie ahead

Hindustan Unilever's efforts to protect its market share in key categories like skincare and soaps seem to be bearing fruit. But Nielsen's October data shows that HUL is not out of the woods just yet. Tanvi Shukla and Priyal Guliani reports.

HUL MD and CEO confirmed he was seeing an improvement in the company's share through the September quarter.

But data for October from research firm Nielsen shows that this confidence, while not misplaced, may have been a little overstated.

The data shows that six of HUL's top-10 categories have continued to lose value market share and eight of them have also seen a fall in volumes as well.

In terms of market share, shampoos, packaged tea, toothpaste, detergent cakes, talcum powder and utensil cleaner continue to take a beating.

The silver lining comes mainly from two categories. A portfolio revamp has helped the soap category gain 17 basis points value market share, even though volumes in the category fell 9.5% on a year on year basis. The skin cream category also saw a 50 basis point climb in value share.

On the volumes front, packaged tea appears to be a problem category.

The Nielsen data shows this category took the hardest hit, with volumes falling 16.4% year on year.

But the company believes it's early days yet. It is banking on strong pricing action, streamlined distribution and a very aggressive advertising and promotional budget to break out of the woods.