Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, May 21, 2003 |
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Corporate
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Outlook Marketing - Strategy Hind Lever does a SWOT of itself Our Bureau
MUMBAI, May 20 IN its 2002 annual report FMCG major Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL), has taken time off before the mirror to do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats) analysis of itself. The company's weaknesses spotted thereby include increased consumer spends on education, consumer durable, entertainment, travel, etc resulting in lower share of wallet for FMCG; limited success in changing the eating habits of people; complex supply chain configuration and unwieldy number of stock keeping units (SKUs) with dispersed manufacturing locations; price positioning in some categories that allows for low price competition and high social costs in the plantation business. Perceived threats span low-priced competition now being present in all categories; grey imports; spurious/counterfeit products in rural areas and small towns; changes in fiscal benefits and unfavourable prices in oils, tea commodity, etc. With identified strengths including a strong brand portfolio; consumer understanding; R&D ability; distribution reach and high quality manpower, HLL sees its opportunities as market and brand growth through increased penetration especially in rural areas; brand growth through increased consumption depth and frequency of usage across all categories; upgrading consumers through innovation to new levels of quality and performance; emerging modern trade to be effectively used for introduction of more upscale personal care products; growing consumption in out of home categories; positioning HLL as a sourcing hub for Unilever companies elsewhere and leveraging the latest IT technologies. This is believed to be the first time the company has officially tabled a SWOT analysis of itself to shareholders. Given the direct impact economic growth has on a FMCG company like itself, HLL's outlook for 2003 is "cautious'' with GDP growth estimate pegged at "about 5 per cent."
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