June 24, 2021
Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has added 30 percent more capacity in its supply chain, making it more flexible and agile, while adding alternate sources to meet the problems in the case of the third wave of COVID-19.
CMD Sanjiv Mehta expressed hopefulness that the rural markets will continue to be strong despite the second wave of the pandemic impacting the hinterlands. With commodity prices increasing, the company is keeping a close eye on the situation and going for calibrated price hikes to avoid impacting consumers in a big way, he added.
With the supply chain much more agile HUL has taken several initiatives to improve efficiency and has added much more flexibility in its supply chain and aim to preserve resilience through alternate sourcing.
Mehta said, “We also continue to invest in technological capabilities and we have invested in creating a very safe environment for our workforce through tiered protocols”.
HUL’s supply chain is going through an enormous transformation across the verticals and the company is digitizing upstream sourcing network which allows optimization of cost and we are bringing in artificial intelligence and machine learning that is being leveraged for better forecasting and planning, he added
The giant company is also redesigning a manufacturing and distribution network to bring in more agility and flexibility. It too has significantly “strengthened medical infrastructure and is accelerating the vaccination program for people.
Mehta said, that the rural demand would be strong as it has grown faster than urban trade after the first wave of the pandemic, but added it will take a few more weeks for a proper assessment. The government has increased outlay on MGNREGA, there is a rise in wages and also the MSP of certain key crops has gone up now, so we are confident, we expect the rural (market) to remain resilient,” he said.