HUL posts record growth

India’s largest consumer goods manufacturer Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) hasn’t had it so good in the past 10 years.The 21.1% growth in net sales it has reported for the June quarter is the highest since at least the September quarter of 1998. This is based on data collated by Capitaline, which doesn’t have yearly growth data prior to September 1998. Unilever’s Indian arm has now had three successive quarters of very strong growth, averaging 19%. Volume growth during the last three quarters has averaged about 9% on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, which again is quite high by the company’s standards. What’s also heartening is HUL’s ability to take substantive price increases in the recent past. Last quarter, for instance, average prices of all of its products improved by about 10% y-o-y. Going by the trend thus far, this hasn’t... [read full story]