The detergent brand Surf Excel has become the top brand of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL). HUL reported annual sales of over Rs 5,000 crore in the previous year. With this, it became the first such brand of Hindustan Unilever to cross the Rs 5,000 crore mark in sales. HUL has started focusing on premium products in the detergent market.
Citing Nielsen’s data, industry executives said that Surf recorded record sales of Rs 5,375 crore in 2019. Its market share was 17.9%. It accounted for about 14% of the total revenue of HUL. It accounted for 45% of the company’s laundry segment sales. Nielsen declined to comment on the news.
The Wheel brand has been at the forefront of HUL’s laundry portfolio. However, surf has increased its dominance in this segment last year. HUL declined to comment on market share.
Surf was the first market leader in detergent category, then Nirma took the reigns from it in 1985. HUL then introduced the low-cost wheel to the market to compete with the new rival. Wheel ruled the market from the 90s to 2012, but that year RS Kanpur’s watch brand overtook it.
