He may not have joined the ranks of Indra Nooyi and Vikram Pandit just yet, but he?s getting there. The only Indian to have got this far, Harish Manwani was on Friday promoted to the position of chief operating officer (COO) at Unilever Plc, the 44.3-billion euro Anglo-Dutch manufacturer of consumer and food products.
The 57-year-old Manwani who joined Hindustan Lever ? as it was then known ? in 1976 and rose to become president, Asia and Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and non-executive chairman, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) in 2005, will take over as COO from September 2011. In the past, former HUL chairpersons T Thomas, Ashok Ganguly, KB Dadiseth and Manvinder Banga have been members of the Unilever executive committee. At 1.10 PM local time, the Unilever stock was trading at 1,966 pence, up 1.29%, on the London Stock Exchange.
With emerging markets now contributing over half of Unilever?s turnover and India clearly a growth engine, it?s no surprise an Indian has been chosen to drive growth at the multinational. Manwani, who graduated from Mumbai University and picked up a management degree from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, together with managing director Nitin Paranjpe is credited with having scripted the R19,735-crore HUL?s comeback after the FMCG major yielded market share to rivals in key categories in the wake of the economic downturn in late 2008.
Indeed, Unilever CEO Paul Polman is understood to have expressed his disappointment at the indifferent performance of the Indian business in no uncertain terms. However, a spirited turnaround by HUL ? which boasts of brands like Surf, Dove, Wheel, Fair and Lovely, Kissan, Knorr and Lux ? last year appears to have paved the way for Manwani?s promotion. Manwani might have had a hint of where he was headed because in a business magazine a couple of weeks back, he had talked of how he wanted 70% of revenues to come from emerging markets, compared with 53% as of now. Among the 17 emerging markets on its radar, India and Brazil are currently in focus. Following an exceptionally good performance in the March 2011 quarter, the HUL stock has been re-rated but even earlier, the stock was outperforming markets with a gain of 22% over the past year compared with a 4% rise in the Sensex.
On Friday, Polman announced alterations to its category and go-to-market structure aimed at galvanising growth especially in the fast-developing emerging markets. ?Unilever now has over half its turnover in the emerging markets where, over the last 10 years, growth has been close to double digits,? the global CEO observed in a release.
?We have an opportunity to better support this footprint of the business, to keep our strong momentum, with a more globally aligned country and category organisation,? the global CEO said. Polman added that Manwani would be responsible for all markets in order to drive speed-to-market behind further simplification and efficiency.
Unilever?s turnover rose 11.1% in 2010, with 7.3% due to currency driven by underlying volume growth of 5.8%, the best the multinational has achieved for more than 30 years. Net profits rose 26% to euro 4.6 billion while free cash flows were of the order of euro 3.4 billion. ?We set out two years ago to reignite our volume growth and to grow ahead of our markets,? the company?s financial review for 2010 stated. Friday brought changes in the category organisation with the number of categories now at four and reporting directly to Polman. Moreover, Dave Lewis, currently president, Americas, will be appointed president (personal care) while Kevin Havelock, currently executive vice-president (ice cream) will be president of the newly established refreshment category which includes ice cream and beverages. Antoine de Saint Affrique, currently executive vice-president (skin care) will be appointed president (food).
In the home care category, Randy Quinn, currently executive vice-president (laundry), and Sean Gogarty, senior vice president (household care) will report directly to Polman. The new structures will be put in place during the third quarter and will be fully operational before the year-end.