The country’s largest consumer goods company, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has named Priya Nair as its CEO and MD following incumbent Rohit Jawa’s decision to step down from the position, according to a statement on Thursday.
The leadership change was announced after market hours, taking the domestic consumer goods world by surprise, given that HUL, regarded as a CEO factory, is known for its stability at the top. Nair, 53, is currently president of beauty & wellbeing at Unilever.
Nair’s appointment, effective August 1 and for a tenure of five years, will give HUL its first woman CEO in over nine decades of its existence in India. Jawa, however, will go down as the second HUL CEO after Douglas Baillie to have a two-year stint at the firm, considered short by HUL standards.
While Baillie was HUL CEO from March 2006 to March 2008, Jawa, 58, succeeded Sanjiv Mehta, who retired after a ten-year tenure at the firm on June 26, 2023. Jawa, HUL said, will step down on 31 July to pursue the next chapter in his personal and professional journey.
“Rohit has held many notable roles across his successful 37-year career, including executive vice president North Asia and chair Unilever China, and chair of Unilever Philippines, two of the most important Unilever operations,” HUL said.
The company also added that Nair will join the board, subject to necessary approvals and continue to be a member of the Unilever Leadership Executive.
A consumer goods veteran, Nair joined HUL in 1995 and held several sales and marketing roles across home care, beauty & wellbeing and personal care businesses. She became the executive director, home care, HUL between 2014 and 2020, and thereafter, the executive director, beauty & personal care, HUL from 2020 to 2022.
She subsequently went on to become the global chief marketing officer, beauty & wellbeing at Unilever. Since 2023, Nair has been the president of beauty & wellbeing, one of Unilever’s fastest growing businesses. Sources in the know say that Nair was in the list of candidates back in 2023 to succeed Mehta after his retirement, but the CEO role then went to Jawa.
While Jawa took over the reins of the company at a difficult moment in consumer goods, with inflationary pressures and financial uncertainty forcing urban consumers to downtrade and curtail spends, he did streamline operations at HUL, splitting beauty and personal care and demerging ice-creams, in line with the global parent. Jawa also brought HUL’s focus back on volume growth, helped improve accessibility by driving small packs of premium brands across urban and rural markets and made acquisitions such as Minimalist in the direct-to-consumer space.
Jawa was also instrumental in introducing the ‘Aspire’ strategy at HUL, which has been designed to strengthen both HUL’s core and future core businesses, experts said.
Analysts say that while HUL under Nair’s leadership will benefit from the tailwinds the sector will receive from favourable macro-economic fundamentals including good monsoons and rural momentum as well as fiscal and monetary policy measures aimed at lifting urban demand, she will have to deliver on the target the company has set — achieving a 10% earnings growth over the medium to long term.
HUL, which sells soaps, shampoo, tea, and ketchups, reported a turnover of Rs 60,680 crore for FY25, up 2% over the year prior with underlying volume growth of 2%. Profit after tax grew 5% to Rs 10,644 crore during the period.