Unilever in India: undisputed category leadership, volume-led growth and sharper channel execution
SQ'26: open format store secondary sales up 3X vs prior period with per-store assortment up 11%+, health & beauty up 1.4X with assortment up 9%+.
By ScoutQuest · · 1 min read
- Open format store secondary sales
- up 3X vs prior period
- Per-store assortment growth
- up 11%+
- 2025 turnover
- €6.3BN
- Period
- SQ'26; Investor Event 2026
- Positioning
- Unilever in India presents itself as the undisputed leader, with market share 3.5x to 5x the nearest competitor across six categories, 9M+ outlets reached and 9 in 10 households using one or more of its brands.
📌 In SQ'26 the company reports 3X growth versus the previous period in neighbourhood open format stores (20,000+ stores serviced in 200+ towns) with per-store assortment growth of 11%+, and 1.4X growth in health and beauty (175,000 specialist stores across 150+ top towns) with per-store assortment growth of +9%; the footnotes date both to SQ'26 versus SQ'25 secondary gross sales value.
🌍 At the full-year level the company prints 2025 turnover of €6.3BN, 6 brands above €300 Mn, 85BN+ packs sold in a year, 9M+ outlets reached and 9/10 households using one or more of its brands, and it says its market share ranges from 3.5x the nearest competitor in hair care to 5x in lifestyle nutrition.
🎯 Management lists five priorities it says strengthened market leadership in India over the past year: elevated desire on brands, sharper resource allocation, execution step-up across channels, volume-led revenue growth and a unified India organisation.
📌 The company frames India as a long runway, pointing to quarterly category penetration of just 8% for dishwash liquid, 13% for laundry liquid and 17% for face cleansing, and says AI-led outlet recommendations through IQ Neo plus HUL Shikhar — 1.3MN active users generating ~33K bills a day in SQ'26 — drive double-digit assortment growth in traditional trade.
Also from Hindustan Unilever
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4 Nov 2026
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3 Nov 2026
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30 Oct 2026
More numbers
- Open format stores, growth vs previous period, SQ'26 vs SQ'253X
- Per store assortment growth, open format stores, SQ'2611%+
- Specialist stores, growth vs previous period, SQ'26 vs SQ'251.4X
- Per store assortment growth, health & beauty, SQ'26+9%
- Turnover, 2025€6.3BN
- Packs sold in a year85BN+
- Outlets reached9M+
- Open format stores serviced, SQ'2620,000+
- HUL Shikhar active users, SQ'261.3MN
- Bills generated per day via HUL Shikhar, SQ'26~33K
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