Surf Excels as HUL's top brand, nets over Rs 5,000 crore in sales

Surf Excel became the first Hindustan Unilever brand to top the mark by posting more than Rs 5,000 crore (US$ 715.41 million) in annual sales last year. This was mainly on the back of the company’s increased focus on premium products in the detergent market.

Surf was launched around 60 years ago and recorded sales of Rs 5,375 crore (US$ 769.07 million) in the past year with a market share of 17.9 per cent, according to the industry executives citing Nielsen data. It accounted for around 14 per cent of the company's net revenue and 45 per cent of its laundry segment sales. Though, no respond was provided by Nielsen.

In 2018, the laundry portfolio was outshined by Surf with the mass market Wheel brand which dominate the HUL’s portfolio. According to a spokesperson, the company’s efforts towards premiumisation of the segment through liquid detergents and fabric conditioners have yielded a strong result.

The spokesperson added, “HUL’s laundry category continues its growth momentum with performance driven by a relentless focus on core and market development initiatives”. In 1985, Ahmedabad-based Nirma took over Surf as the market leader in detergent category, leading to the launch of lower-priced Wheel by Surf to take on the new rival.

Wheel captured the top spot back for HUL and managed to hold the position between the early1990s till 2012, when Kanpur-based RSPL’s Ghari brand edged it to be the market leader. The gap between the two is narrow. The company added 1.8 percentage points over the past two years in market share, whereas Ghari’s share has remained unchanged at 19.2 per cent with annual sales of Rs 5,756 crore (US$ 823.58 million) in 2019.

According to a top RSPL, the company is aiming to push growth and expand market share. “We are launching machine wash variants, entering the modern trade channel and expanding geographical reach to generate higher sales growth this year,” said President Mr Sushil Kumar Bajpai. He added that though the brand has minor share in modern trade but is by far the leader in general trade.

HUL’s overall share in India’s laundry care market stood at 39.1 per cent of worth Rs 29,959 crore (US$ 4.29 billion) as company also owns Rin and Sunlight. HUL has been gradually launching higher priced variants and formats that led to the growth in the category to nearly 11 per cent for the company last year, compared with six per cent in 2018. As a result, HUL's share in the premium laundry market is more than 77 per cent, compared with 22 per cent in the mass segment and 44 per cent in the mid-priced.

The company introduced another premium product last year, which was Love & Care focused for special fashion fabrics. As the penetration of washing machines has increased and lower-priced detergent powders, laundry care consumers are shifting from bar detergents to powder detergents, a factor triggering growth in the category.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.