HINDUNILVRNSEFinancial Year 20267 May 2026

Hindustan Unilever Limited

11,864words

103turns

12analyst exchanges

3executives

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Management on call

Priya Nair

Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director

Niranjan Gupta

CFO, Executive Director, Finance

Yogesh Mulgaonkar

Head of Investor Relations & Head of Finance,

Key numbers — 40 extracted

l elaborate on this later in the presentation. Against this operating backdrop, we delivered an 8% Consolidated Revenue Growth. This was supported by 7% Underlying Sales Growth, primarily driven b

st this operating backdrop, we delivered an 8% Consolidated Revenue Growth. This was supported by 7% Underlying Sales Growth, primarily driven by volumes. Importantly, this represents our highest qu

rs,

rimarily driven by volumes. Importantly, this represents our highest quarterly growth in 12 quarters, reflecting both the ongoing transformation of our portfolio and the step-up of on-ground execution

-based with all segments delivering healthy growth. From a profitability perspective, EBITDA grew 6% year-on-year with EBITDA margin at 23.7%, coming in at the higher end of our guidance. Profit Aft

23.7%

thy growth. From a profitability perspective, EBITDA grew 6% year-on-year with EBITDA margin at 23.7%, coming in at the higher end of our guidance. Profit After Tax before exceptional items at Rs. 2,

Rs. 2,711 crore

23.7%, coming in at the higher end of our guidance. Profit After Tax before exceptional items at Rs. 2,711 crores grew 4% year-on-year. Moving to our financial year performance, with a turnover of Rs. 63,763 cr

he higher end of our guidance. Profit After Tax before exceptional items at Rs. 2,711 crores grew 4% year-on-year. Moving to our financial year performance, with a turnover of Rs. 63,763 crores, w

Rs. 63,763 crore

. 2,711 crores grew 4% year-on-year. Moving to our financial year performance, with a turnover of Rs. 63,763 crores, we delivered 5% USG driven by 4% UVG. Importantly, this headline performance reflects a clear

r. Moving to our financial year performance, with a turnover of Rs. 63,763 crores, we delivered 5% USG driven by 4% UVG. Importantly, this headline performance reflects a clear and consistent step

being better than the first half. We exited March quarter ‘26 with 7% USG, accelerating from the 2% USG in FY’25. The improved momentum is on account of a series of decisive actions that were tak

Rs. 2,000 crore

bigger bets in areas with the highest growth potential. For instance, we have recently committed Rs. 2,000 crores of capex investments in premium formats of Beauty and Home Care. We have actively rotated our po

Rs. 1,000 crore

ions and portfolio expansion that meets evolving consumer preferences, Vaseline has surpassed the Rs. 1,000 crore milestone this year and delivered healthy double-digit growth. The strong performance of these

Guidance — 20 items

Yogesh Mulgaonkar

opening

“This evening we will be covering the results for the Quarter and Financial Year ended 31st March 2026.”

Yogesh Mulgaonkar

opening

“We expect this to take around 20 minutes, leaving us approximately an hour for the Q&A.”

Priya Nair

opening

“From a profitability perspective, EBITDA grew 6% year-on-year with EBITDA margin at 23.7%, coming in at the higher end of our guidance.”

Niranjan Gupta

opening

“Our EBITDA margin stood at 23.7% at the higher end of our guidance, and in absolute terms, our EBITDA grew 6% on year-on-year basis.”

Niranjan Gupta

opening

“EBITDA margin at 23.6% was at the higher end of the guidance.”

Niranjan Gupta

opening

“Our dividend approach reflects a conscious outcome of the choices we are making, redirecting capital into opportunities we believe will be growth accretive while still maintaining sustainable returns for shareholders.”

Niranjan Gupta

opening

“And as we navigate this, depending on how the costs pan out, we will be taking further price increases as may be necessary.”

Niranjan Gupta

opening

“This, combined with the strength of our brands and our robust financial position, we expect FY’27 to be better than FY’26.”

Niranjan Gupta

opening

“As far as margins are concerned, our approach remains consistent and disciplined, and we expect the mid-term margin guidance to remain around our current guided range of 22.5% to 23.5%.”

Priya Nair

“Our focus will be to first roll out the Superfoods launch across the country, which is what we will be in the process of doing.”

Risks & concerns — 15 flagged

Before closing, let me briefly outline the impact of the ongoing Middle East situation on our business.

— Niranjan Gupta

And while the situation remained volatile, we were focused on supply continuity and fulfilling consumer demand.

— Niranjan Gupta

Would you see that as a big challenge in terms of this growth recovery?

— Abneesh Roy

El Nino challenge mostly I think H2 rural demand will get tested.

— Abneesh Roy

And probably maybe I will just add, Abneesh, that in the end, listen we can't control the macroeconomic uncertainty or volatility, but what we are going to focus on and this has always been the case in these kind of volatile times, that we are very strongly placed as HUL because of the financial strength, the overall operational agility, our scale, we are well-placed to navigate this short-term sort of, medium to short-term volatility, but stay focused on our long-term opportunities.

— Priya Nair

And second bit was, we have come across reports regarding how smaller players may be finding it difficult to operate amidst supply disruption and raw material availability and of course in an associated commodity inflation environment.

— Latika Chopra

As regards, what we are witnessing whenever there have been challenges and disruptions, in volatile times, organizations and we have a strong position.

— Priya Nair

You know, this vertical has continued to see volume decline.

— Latika Chopra

As far as the current situation is concerned, it's not one- way street, it's very volatile.

— Niranjan Gupta

Within the mass skin care portfolio, it was subdued both on Glow & Lovely and especially on talcum powders because talcum powders in March quarter given the seasonality had a very weak quarter.

— Priya Nair

It's very difficult for me to answer this question.

— Priya Nair

Given the pricing is very volatile and given Niranjan said that you are judicially taking a view on that, but we are also coming out of the negative pricing which we saw in Home Care.

— Amit Sachdeva

So, I think we will have to navigate this space, it's very difficult to give out a number or b number for the full year.

— Niranjan Gupta

And in a volatile environment, we remain confident about our ability to navigate.

— Priya Nair

Second question on tea, we have seen sort of on a relative weak base again softer volume growth.

— Aditya Soman

Q&A — 12 exchanges

Hi team, my first question is actually on the volume drivers. One, if you could just help us understand, because it's been a good six months after the GST price cuts etc. in certain categories. If you talk about, let's say, the positive effects of price elasticity gains, let's say for example in a shampoo bottle, one example which comes to my mind, or any other example you want to highlight, what's actually happening in terms of consumption? Secondly, over the last three months, six months, if you could just help us understand the drivers of UVG, is it more tonnage, more mix, etc.? That's ques

Priya Nair

Yeah, thanks Manoj. So, you know Manoj, I think I will break this up into a few parts. The first is we are doubling down behind market development and market making. For HUL, this has always been the largest part of our volume-led growth. So really what you're seeing also is a reflection of us intrinsically going behind those few big bets that we are talking about. Just to give you an example, we talked about liquids. Liquids in Home Care has now become Rs. 4,000 crores, growing at strong double-digit. This is all mostly volumetric. So therefore, those are the examples of the kind of actions.

Yeah, thanks and congrats on recovery. My first question is again on Lifestyle Nutrition. In the past, we have seen that whenever milk is inflationary, Horlicks and Boost also suffer in demand because obviously a large part of the consumption is linked. Now in an El Nino year, generally we see fodder availability being impacted and that does drive up the milk prices. Would you see that as a big challenge in terms of this growth recovery? Because you have seen good recovery, but can this derail, say in H2 or that kind of a timeframe when milk becomes inflationary? That is my first question.

Priya Nair

Yeah, Abneesh, actually Horlicks gets drunk both in milk and in water. So that's the first thing I wanted to mention. Yes, it's absolutely true that it gets drunk with milk, but it also in the East of the country, in fact, mostly it is put into water. So that's the first thing you need to know. The second thing is I actually think we are in a time in which, you know, nutrition is actually a key trend. So, I think the focus and that's what we are doubling down behind, which is to, you know, remind consumers of the nutritive benefits of Horlicks and Boost. And that's our key focus. The third is

Thank you. My first question is, you have mentioned volume growth is the top priority, which is great, and you have also retained your margin guidance. And you have explained some of this, in the previous questions also, responses also. But how do you plan to manage, especially in the context of the volatility that we are seeing in the input prices? I mean, we are speaking on a day when Brent has crossed $120, rupee has depreciated below 95. How do you get that margin confidence also, and if the priority is volume growth, do you not think you may have to take some chance with the margins?

Niranjan Gupta

So, Vivek, the way we are navigating this space, as I said already, is that we have seen a cost inflation of around 8% to 10% so far on our material cost base. Against that, we have already taken a price increase to the extent of 2% to 5% depending on portfolio to portfolio. And we are continuing to navigate. See, the Brent going up to $120 on a single day, as you know, nobody can forecast because they are not fundamentals of demand and supply that are guiding the Brent prices or the currency right now. So, they are fluctuating in a wide range. But we will continue to navigate and take appropr

Yeah, hi. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question was on broader top line and market share. Just wanted to quickly clarify if you came across any pre- buying from channel partners ahead of anticipated price increases in some of your categories which you took in March and April. And second bit was, we have come across reports regarding how smaller players may be finding it difficult to operate amidst supply disruption and raw material availability and of course in an associated commodity inflation environment. Are you witnessing any such trends in your core categories which in turn are

Priya Nair

Yeah, Latika, I will answer and also ask Niranjan to add. So, in terms of pre-buying, we did not witness any pre-buying from traders in the quarter. So that's simply the answer to that question. As regards, what we are witnessing whenever there have been challenges and disruptions, in volatile times, organizations and we have a strong position. So, let's take categories in which we have a strong position like Home Care. We are well-positioned because of both our overall financial position, we operate in premium parts of Home Care, we are well-positioned because of the scale in which we operate

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. My question was first on Home Care. Now Home Care obviously has the maximum input cost inflation that you would be facing. And if I look at the post-Ukraine FY’23 year, HUL had taken high double- digit price increases in Home Care almost very immediately after the input cost inflation came in. This time, I think from what I heard from Niranjan on TV, the price hikes are a lot more modest. Is there any reason for that in the sense that is the input cost inflation not yet hit you to that extent as of now, or is there anything different in the operating environ

Niranjan Gupta

So, Arnab, these are two different situations actually. When you looked at the previous situation of the increased inflation that happened, that was more structural and therefore more longer-term in terms of how it was to pan out and that's how it panned out. As far as the current situation is concerned, it's not one- way street, it's very volatile. We have already seen crude going up to $110, moving down to $85, moving up, moving down. So, it's a very short-termish situation as of now, which is not dependent on structural demand or supply issues. It's based on the geopolitical war issue that'

Yeah, hi. I just had one clarificatory question, which was on if you could give us some details on what has weighed on the mass skin care segment and any actions that you have taken which could help offset these pressures?

Priya Nair

Yeah, I think, first I want to put colour totally on our Beauty & Wellbeing business. Our Beauty & Wellbeing business grew USG at 8%. Remember that the USG does not include at this moment Minimalist, which lies at the revenue line, not yet in the USG line. And underlying level our overall Beauty & Wellbeing business will be growing double-digit. And therefore, that's how revenue growth should be close to double-digit. So that's how you need to see our overall Beauty & Wellbeing business. Within that, in Skin Care as you are asking, the skin care market is premiumizing and we are seeing now ver

Thank you for taking my question. Congrats on a great set of numbers. Firstly, just one clarification. If this 8% to 10% cost inflation that you are witnessing, is there any low-cost inventory in that? And if one is to strip that out, what is the kind of cost inflation that you are seeing here?

Niranjan Gupta

I'm not sure I got the question. I think this is the 8% to 10% cost inflation is on our material cost, accounting for our normal covers that we have. So that's the cost inflation that we see and that's the way we see. Of course, there may be players who may be facing more than that depending on how efficient or non-efficient their buying’s are on the market. But we do have an efficient procurement system, based on which we are seeing 8% to 10% material cost increase. Got it. No, I was asking basically in this 8% to 10%, do you also have certain low- cost inventory that you had bought earlier,

Yeah, hi. Thank you so much for taking my question. My first question, Priya, is on Beauty & Wellbeing growth rate. Clearly, I see that mass is dragging the growth rate of Skin Care, which is led by premium, which is growing very well. But mass is a given, which is a very large category for us. So, in that sense, it needs to be crowded out by newer brands. And so, the pace of crowding out this very resilient but slow growing portfolio or no growing portfolio seems to be still lacking. So, do you need to aggressively build more brands or benefit spaces there? Is the pace you are comfortable wit

Priya Nair

The biggest opportunity for us in Skin Care is to democratize formats that are today very niche at the top end of the portfolio. So, if you take, for example, sunscreen, you take light moisturizer, you take even face washes, the penetration of these categories is still low. So, our opportunity and that is what we are focusing, so it's not just about more brands. It's about driving and democratizing at scale, which only HUL can do given our scale and size, these formats are across the length and breadth of the country. March Quarter & Financial Year 2026 Earnings call of Hindustan Unilever Limi

Hi, thanks for the opportunity. So, three questions, I mean, two questions and a clarification. So firstly, on was there any restocking effect in the quarter given that we had some destocking and channel effect in the previous quarter? Second question on tea, we have seen sort of on a relative weak base again softer volume growth. So, is there anything specific in this quarter that impacted tea growth given that now input costs also seem to be under control? And then just a clarification on what you mentioned on the sort of 400 basis point market share gain in Bodywash. Is this based on Nielse

Niranjan Gupta

So as far as restocking is concerned, we actually had alluded to that there's been no restocking as far as our March quarter is concerned. So, these are the underlying sales as you see. On tea, there's no specific reason for this one. I mean, more importantly, it's more around the deflation that year-on-year that you see on pricing, which has impacted the sales growth as far as tea is concerned. But there's no fundamental reason for tea volumes. March Quarter & Financial Year 2026 Earnings call of Hindustan Unilever Limited And the third, which is the market share, which is Bodywash, yes, it's

Yes, good evening, Priya and Niranjan. Two questions. Niranjan, the first one was a clarification that if we assume the current spot prices of our commodities, what would be the inflation for us at present?

Niranjan Gupta

It's very speculative to take the current spot because the current spot what is today may not be tomorrow because I have seen the last 30 days the way it moves. So, I don't think, Nihal, by doing those calculations one actually can get led to very wrong decision-making. So, what we are doing is we are watching the space and not reacting to any knee-jerk current spot prices. As we said, when we have looked at the balance of the cost elements that are coming in the June quarter, we are seeing 8% to 10% cost inflation on overall material basket for HUL. Sure, Niranjan. Niranjan, the second questi

Yeah, in the web there's one question for you, Priya. It says Unilever globally is moving away from foods, yet HUL is doubling down on Horlicks, Boost, and March Quarter & Financial Year 2026 Earnings call of Hindustan Unilever Limited Coffee. How aligned is HUL's food strategy with the global direction and do we read more in this?

Priya Nair

Yeah, I think the HUL Foods business is very distinctively different from the Unilever Foods business. Our business of HUL is firstly a Beverage business in Tea and Coffee, a Lifestyle Nutrition business, and in Foods, Kissan is our large brand, a very different local brand, very well entrenched in the segments in which it operates. And as you know, we have launched into chutneys and extended the brand recently. So therefore that, combined with the opportunities that exist in India in Foods, is the reason why Foods is outside the perimeter of the Unilever transaction that we have done, and Foo

Yeah, with that we now come to the end of the Q&A session. Before we end, let me remind you that the playback of this event will be available on the Investor Relations section of our website in a short while. Thank you, everyone, for the participation and have a great evening.

Management

Speaking time

Priya Nair

Moderator

Niranjan Gupta

Mihir Shah

Abneesh Roy

Amit Sachdeva

Yogesh Mulgaonkar

Manoj Menon

Vivek

Nihal Jham

Opening remarks

Yogesh Mulgaonkar

Thank you, Neerav. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the conference call of Hindustan Unilever Limited. This evening we will be covering the results for the Quarter and Financial Year ended 31st March 2026. On the call with me is Priya Nair, CEO and Managing Director, and Niranjan Gupta, our CFO. We will start with prepared remarks from Priya and Niranjan. We expect this to take around 20 minutes, leaving us approximately an hour for the Q&A. We will look to end the call by 5:15. Before we get started with the presentation, I would like to draw your attention to the safe harbor statement included in the presentation for good order's sake. With that, over to you, Priya.

Priya Nair

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us on the call today. Let me briefly set the context in which we operated in this quarter. During the period, demand conditions remained stable across the market. This stability was aided by a supportive macroeconomic environment shaped by a series of fiscal and monetary measures implemented through the course of the year. These actions, combined with lower headline inflation for a large part of the period, provided some relief to household budgets, creating a more enabling backdrop for consumption. March Quarter & Financial Year 2026 Earnings call of Hindustan Unilever Limited In March, the escalation of the Middle East crisis led to a sharp spike in crude and crude-linked commodity costs, along with supply-side disruptions and continued rupee depreciation. We are navigating this geopolitical volatility with operational agility to protect our consumer franchise. Niranjan will elaborate on this later in the presentation. Against this oper

Niranjan Gupta

Thank you, Priya. Good afternoon, everyone. Let me share a detailed overview of our quarterly performance, followed by a full year update, and I'll conclude that with the outlook. As Priya mentioned earlier, March quarter’26 we delivered 8% Consolidated Revenue growth, driven by a robust UVG of 6%. Our EBITDA margin stood at 23.7% at the higher end of our guidance, and in absolute terms, our EBITDA grew 6% on year-on-year basis. Our Profit After Tax before exceptional item grew 4% on year-on-year basis, while the Reported Profit After Tax grew by 20% year-on-year. The reported March Quarter & Financial Year 2026 Earnings call of Hindustan Unilever Limited profit includes the combined impact of proceeds from divestment of Nutritionalab Private Limited in the current quarter and OZiva fair valuation in the base period. Moving to segmental performance for the quarter, Home Care delivered 9% Underlying Sales Growth driven by high-single digit UVG. This marks the segment's strongest perform

Yogesh Mulgaonkar

Thank you, Priya and Niranjan. With this, we now move to the Q&A. We request you to kindly restrict the number of questions to a maximum of two at a time. In case you have any further questions, please join the queue again. In addition to the audio, our participants have an option to post the questions through a web option on the screen. We will take those questions just at the end. With that, I would like to hand the call back to Neerav to manage the next session for us.

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