HUL Rejigs Biz Model, Sanjiv Mehta To Continue As Chairman & MD

Unilever has rejigged its business model, shifting focus from regions to categories. Sanjiv Mehta will retain will continue as Hindustan Unilever (HUL) chairman and managing director. Mehta also continues as president - South Asia, according to media reports.

The company said it will move away from its current matrix structure and will be organised around five distinct business groups: beauty & wellbeing, personal care, home care, nutrition, and ice cream. “Each business group will be fully responsible and accountable for their strategy, growth, and profit delivery globally,” read a release.

With the focus shifting to categories rather than regions, the post of COO will now become redundant. Nitin Paranjpe, who’s currently the COO of Unilever, will take the role of chief transformation and chief people’s officer from April 1 to lead business transformation and head HR function.

Leena Nair, who was earlier heading the people function as the CHRO of Unilever, will move on to lead Chanel as CEO.

Commenting on the rejig, Alan Jope, chief executive officer at Unilever, said in a global press release, “Our new organisational model has been developed over the last year and is designed to continue the step-up we are seeing in the performance of our business. Moving to five category-focused business groups will enable us to be more responsive to consumer and channel trends, with crystal-clear accountability for delivery. Growth remains our top priority and these changes will underpin our pursuit of this.

“All costs related to setting up the new organisation will be managed within existing restructuring investment plans,” media reports quoted Unilever as saying said.