Hindustan Unilever will step up investments in artificial intelligence (AI), science-led innovation, localised supply chains and premium products as it prepares for an increasingly volatile business environment, Chairman Nitin Paranjpe said on Tuesday, outlining the FMCG major’s roadmap for long-term growth.
Addressing shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM), Paranjpe said businesses can no longer afford to treat resilience as merely the ability to withstand shocks, but must use disruptions to build enduring competitive advantages. “The question is no longer whether disruption will come.
The question is whether we can turn these challenges into opportunities,” he said. “Resilience and reinvention are not separate agendas. Businesses and nations that imbibe this thought will not just survive the next disruption, but they will shape what comes after it.”
Paranjpe said AI would increasingly become the backbone of HUL’s operations rather than remain confined to isolated use cases. He said the company’s AI-powered B2B ordering platform, Shikhar, now contributes more than one-third of HUL’s total sales while giving it real-time visibility into demand across millions of kirana stores.
The company has also rolled out Nano Distribution Centres to serve fast-growing channels such as quick commerce and has reorganised metro distribution through its Samadhan model, reducing delivery timelines from three days to less than 24 hours. “Real value does not come from isolated use cases. It comes from reimagining processes, decision-making and ways of working end-to-end,” Paranjpe said.
He added that HUL now has six World Economic Forum-recognised Lighthouse factories, the highest among Indian FMCG companies, reflecting its investments in AI-led manufacturing and digital supply chains.
The HUL chairman also underlined the importance of reducing dependence on volatile global supply chains and commodity imports through science-led innovation and localisation.
He highlighted Stratos, a proprietary skincare technology that reduces reliance on imported oils, and the company’s work on near-zero-emission soda ash, a key detergent ingredient, through partnerships with Indian companies. “Companies that invest in this capability today will be less exposed to commodity cycles tomorrow,” he said.
He said that India’s push towards localisation should be seen as a strategic imperative, not retreat, especially at a time of geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruptions. HUL’s multi-year Project Nakshatra, which involves setting up factories closer to demand centres, co-locating suppliers and warehouses, and introducing compact manufacturing units, is aimed at building greater flexibility into its supply chain, he said.
Paranjpe said India’s long-term growth prospects remained intact despite near-term global uncertainties, citing the country’s demographic profile, digital public infrastructure and supportive policy environment. He also pointed to changing consumer behaviour, saying premiumisation, quick commerce and digital commerce would increasingly shape the FMCG sector.
HUL has created dedicated teams to serve the quick commerce channel while continuing to expand premium offerings across categories such as haircare, skincare and detergents. Sustainability, he said, would also become a source of competitive advantage rather than just a compliance requirement. “We are not building for the next quarter.
We are building for the next chapter of the India growth story,” Paranjpe said, reiterating HUL’s long-held belief that what is good for India is good for HUL.