HUL bets on global health drink to add zing to premium portfolio
Liquid IV is part of Hindustan Unilever's wider strategy to grow the share of its premium product portfolio by 9 percentage points in the beauty and wellbeing business-its biggest profit generator currently.
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«When we look at our portfolio, a large part sits in core or mass products, which are highly penetrated, and we will shift the portfolio by 900 basis points in favour of premium from where we are today,» Harman Dhillon, executive director of beauty and wellbeing at HUL told ET. «We have identified formats which are relatively under-penetrated, where we are seeing rapid adoption of regimes and consumers willing to pay more money for formats, including at masstige pricing, which is a huge space.»
Unilever acquired Liquid IV in 2020 and has since quadrupled growth to become the largest powdered hydration brand in the US. The brand was also launched in the UK, China, Canada, Australia, Mexico, and the Netherlands. In India, the hydration market is about $1 billion annually but is largely restricted to urban areas.
HUL said it has identified a gap at the premium end, especially for beauty and wellness, to tap into nearly 70 million affluent and super-affluent households in the country.
«Within that, importantly, wellbeing and hydration are becoming super critical, because that has a direct impact on how
