Hindustan Unilever, India’s largest FMCG firm that shut its three manufacturing plants due to COVID positive cases is yet to decide when operations will resume at these plants.
In a media call post the announcement of April-June results, Sanjiv Mehta Chairman and Managing Director said, “We are following all operation standards of hygiene. We are going for extensive testing of all employees of these 3 factories.”
The three manufacturing plants are located at Haridwar in Uttarakhand, South of India (erstwhile GSK plant), and in West Bengal.
“The total employee strength of these factories is around 5,000 employees and only a small percentage of employees were tested positive," Mehta said, adding that of this 80-85% of employees were asymptomatic. As an added precaution, HUL decided to close the site to ensure deep cleaning and sanitisation before restarting operations.
On July 19, HUL had said it temporarily closed down its Haridwar plant, where several of its employees have been tested positive for Covid-19.
The company did not disclose the exact number of employees that were tested positive, but media reports suggest that 33 employees were tested positive in the Haridwar factory. The number of positive cases in the West Bengal and South of India factories is not known.
FMCG major Hindustan Unilever on July 21 has reported a standalone profit of Rs 1,881 crore for the quarter ended June 2020, increasing 7.2 percent compared to the previous quarter, supported by sharp fall (down 31.4 percent) in advertising and promotion expenses, and strong double-digit growth in foods & refreshment segment. However, it was impacted by exceptional expenses with respect to restructuring and acquisition.
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