Surf Excel Becomes The First Indian Home Care Brand To Register A Revenue Of USD 1 Billion

With An Aggregate Turnover of INR 8,200 Crore In 2022, Surf Excel Reached the Milestone of Becoming HUL's First Brand to Accomplish the Number of Sales

Surf Excel, Hindustan Unilever's detergent brand, became the first home and personal care brand in India to turn over a billion dollars in yearly sales in 2022. As the brand made a total profit of INR 8,200 crore, it also turned into HUL's first brand to accomplish that milestone.

As per the executive director of home care at HUL, Deepak Subramanian, this milestone was accomplished on the back of the segment's "premiumisation" using liquid detergents and fabric conditioners.

Furthermore, HUL's second largest brand, Brooke Bond, reported an annual sales of INR 5,000 crore.

Subramanian stated further that the milestone's achievement was reached by Surf Excel due to the support of marketing and innovation, which played a big role in the achievement.

He added that they took the purpose, performance, and innovation and de-averaged (applied different prices of the commodity to different consumers (predominantly by location), rather than applying the same average price) it via their winning in many India strategy.

Usually, regional players are likely to be a mass market, and as there is an uprise occurring to premium, that is where they acquired from them, as per Subramanian.

Besides Surf Excel, HUL also owns two different detergent care brands, Sunlight and Rin. All things considered, these brands hold a 43 percent stake in India's detergent market. This is an all-time high share of HUL, attained in more than a decade.

HUL raised the costs of its Surf Excel products several times, concurrently by double-digit percentage points since 2021-end, driving up the total revenue. Meanwhile, the constant push for premiumisation by HUL for its washing products like Surf Excel detergents also supported its topline.

The MD & CEO of HUL, Sanjiv Mehta, stated that before, the company was focusing on constant premiumisation of its portfolio specifically the fabric wash products category. They presently over-indexed to the market based on the terms of premiumisation, as per Mehta in post-earnings call this month.

Their premium products, including liquids and powders, have advanced well. And the business's total portion in the portfolio now is over-indexed to liquids and the portfolio premium part compared to the mass part of the portfolio, as per Chief Financial Officer, HUL, Ritesh Tiwari, during the call. Counting HUL's product mix keeps enhancing the way they propel the market development for advancing premiumisation.

In addition, Surf Excel sales soared by 32 percent in spite of the inflation, mostly because of the growing preference for the INR 10 packets, a price-point, accounting for 40 percent of its category sales.

HUL has been in the market in India for more than six decades. In 1985, it lost the top spot to Ahmedabad-based Nirma eponymous brand. As a response to that, lower-priced Wheel detergent was launched by HUL. The position was overtaken from the early 1990s to 2012, after which Kanpur-based RSPL's Ghari brand took it. Afterwards, in 2012, Ghari reached the number one spot. But, in the last three years, Surf Excel has been leading the sector in India upstaging both Wheel and Ghari.

The detergent brand was launched six decades ago and presently holding over a fifth of the total detergents market in India, accounting for INR 35,000 crore.

The Indian detergent market leader, Surf Excel, has continuously innovated ahead of the sector and introduced various product formats that cater to the Indian consumer's changing needs. Surf Excel bids excellent cleanliness on a variety of stains, and with considerable product offerings, it is ideal for bucket and machine washing both.

Surf Excel is engineered using modern and path-breaking technology, offering customers with advantages such as easy dissolution, tough stain removal, and superior fragrance, among others.

According to the Procurement Resource article Surf Excel, Hindustan Unilever's detergent brand became the first home and personal care brand in India to turn over a billion dollars in yearly sales in 2022. this milestone was accomplished on the back of the segment's "premiumisation" using liquid detergents and fabric conditioners paired with the support of marketing and innovation, which played a big role in the achievement.