Unilever Executive Vice President visits Sri Lanka

Nitin Paranjpe, Executive Vice President South Asia, Unilever and the CEO and Managing Director of Unilever in India, visited Unilever Sri Lanka (USL) yesterday. As a key market in South Asia, Nitin’s visit to Sri Lanka was aimed at reviewing Unilever Sri Lanka’s plans for the year.

With a continued focus on customer and consumer centricity and execution excellence, Nitin engaged with the leadership team of Unilever Sri Lanka oninnovations, brand launches, market activation plans and the capability building agenda of the company.

Nitin addressed the employees and emphasised the criticality of having the right mindset and doing the right things that lead to long-term growth. He spoke about the fast changing environment in which companies are operating today.

“Today is the slowest that change is ever going to be,” said Nitin, emphasising the need to continuously be aware of the external environment and developments in the world to stay relevant to the consumer.  

Unilever Sri Lanka is one of the biggest FMCG companies in Sri Lanka which has a diverse portfolio in the categories of homecare, oral care, personal care and foods.With a 75-year-long manufacturing presence in the country, Unilever Sri Lanka produces 95% of its products locally.

In order to meet the growing and increasingly diversified needs of the consumer, Unilever invested US$ 50 million in a new manufacturing facility at the BOI Zone in Horana, close to the Southern highway in 2011. This new facility enables the company to deliver faster product innovations, while improving overall production and environmental efficiency.

Today the company has a portfolio of 30 brands including Lifebuoy, Sunlight, Surf, Signal, Laojee, Celonta, Knorr, Sunsilk, and Astra, which are household names and market leaders in the respective categories.

Unilever Sri Lanka was ranked the fourth most respected entity in Sri Lanka by LMD in 2012. The company also won a Gold Award at the 2012 HRM Awards for world class HR practices, as well as the Category Award for best practices in the Reward and Recognition category.