Unilever India expects profits boost after ice cream split finalised
Unilever’s widely-publicised ice cream demerger is expected to boost profit margins for its India business next quarter, despite recent delays in other markets
Globally, Unilever’s decision to separate its ice cream business from the rest of the company has received a great deal of publicity, with the company citing ice cream’s ‘very different’ operating model as the reason for splitting.
Initial plans were for the demerger to be finalised by November 10 this year for all its markets, but in its latest demerger update, the company announced that this would see a delay.
It stated that preparatory work is ‘on track’, and it was ‘confident’ of implementing the demerger in 2025, but no confirmed date has been announced yet.
In India, the demerger is primarily taking place between Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) and Kwality Wall’s India) Ltd (KWIL) and also expected to be completed within this year.
“We expect to complete the demerger by December and anticipate having the new ice cream business listing up (as a separate business entity) by Q4FY2026, subject to the necessary regulatory approvals,” HUL CFO Rites Tiwari told the floor during the firm’s most recent investors’ meeting.
North India UPF consumption nearly twice that of South India
Consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) across South Asia varies significantly depending on location, age, gender, and socioeconomic status, according to new findings.
The South Asia Biobank study was the first large-scale analysis of UPF intake patterns in South Asian adults. It covers data from over 60,000 individuals across Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, collected between 2020 and 2022.
The researchers noted that this was the first study to look at ultra-processed food intake in a large and diverse sample of South Asian adults, and they observed significant differences between regions.
‘A national shame’: FSSAI embroiled in fight over ORS label misuse
India’s latest labelling ban has been stayed by a New Delhi court, raising concerns over continued sales of high-sugar oral rehydration products
JNTL, producer of ORS products under the ORSL brand, filed a petition on October 17 against the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) recent ban on ‘ORS’ (oral rehydration salts) label usage.
The New Delhi court has since restrained enforcement of the ban against JNTL’s stock of ORS products, giving the firm a week to make representations on the case.
ORSL remains available on e-commerce sites such as Amazon and PharmEasy as of late October.
Unilever India confident GST reforms will aid growth despite Q2 declines
Hindustan Unilever India (HUL) is optimistic that the government’s recent tax reforms will help drive growth in the long-run, offsetting current impacts on sales
HUL recently announced its Q2FY2025 financial results, reporting 2% year-on-year revenue growth to INR160.6bn (US$1.82bn) but a drop in profits (before exceptional items) of 4% year-on-year to INR24.8bn (US$281.3m).
The firm’s newly-appointed CEO and Managing Director Priya Nair called this achievement a ‘competitive’ one in light of India’s current market situation.
“This past quarter, the macro-economic environment was shaped by three key factors: The recent GST reforms, prolonged and intense monsoon conditions disrupting supply chains and dampening demand, and divergent commodity trends seeing inflation driving palm oil and skim milk powder prices up but tea and crude oil prices down,” she said.
Back to RIG: How will new Nestle CEO’s growth plans impact APAC?
New Nestle CEO Philipp Navratil has reset Real Internal Growth (RIG) as his ‘most important’ priority moving forward – but just how will his plans for this impact APAC?
Nestle uses RIG to measure ‘normalised’ growth generated by volume and product mix/innovation, as opposed to pricing-led growth which is achieved via price hikes.
Returning to RIG-led growth after the pandemic period was identified as an important target by previous CEO Mark Scheider, who also stated during his term that Nestle was committed to this goal in 2024.
