HUL

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is an Indian consumer goods company headquartered in Mumbai, India. It is a subsidiary of Unilever, a British company. Its products include foods, beverages, cleaning agents, personal care products, water purifiers and other fast-moving consumer goods.

HUL was established in 1931 as Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Co. and following a merger of constituent groups in 1956, it was renamed Hindustan Lever Limited. The company was renamed in June 2007 as Hindustan Unilever Limited. In December 2022, HUL's market cap was Rs. 6385484.2 million.

In December 2018, HUL announced its acquisition of GlaxoSmithkline's India business for $3.8 billion in an all equity merger deal with a 1:4.39 ratio. However the integration of GSK's 3,800 employees remained uncertain as HUL stated there was no clause for retention of employees in the deal. In April 2020, HUL completed its merger with GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH India) after completing all legal procedures.

HUL is the market leader in Indian consumer products with presence in over 20 consumer categories such as soaps, tea, detergents and shampoos amongst others with over 700 million Indian consumers using its products. Sixteen of HUL's brands featured in the ACNielsen Brand Equity list of 100 Most Trusted Brands Annual Survey (2014), carried out by Brand Equity, a supplement of The Economic Times.

In 2001 a thermometer factory in Kodaikanal run by Hindustan Unilever was accused of dumping glass contaminated with mercury in municipal dumps, and selling it on to scrap merchants unable to deal with it appropriately. Protests by local NGOs and Greenpeace lead to the shutting of the factory in March 2001. After protest by activists led by Deepak Malghan of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Hindustan Unilever admitted before court to being guilty in the case in 2010.

Hindustan Unilever's "Glow & Lovely" is the leading skin-lightening cream for women in India. The company had to cease television advertisements for the product in 2007. Advertisements depicted depressed, dark-complexioned women, who had been ignored by employers and men, suddenly finding new boyfriends and glamorous careers after the cream had lightened their skin. In 2008 Hindustan Unilever made former Miss World Priyanka Chopra a brand ambassador for Pond's, and she then appeared in a mini-series of television commercials for another skin lightening product, 'White Beauty', alongside Saif Ali Khan and Neha Dhupia; these advertisements, showing Priyanka's face with a clearly darker complexion against the visibly fairer Neha Dhupia, were widely criticised for perpetuating racism and lowering the self-esteem of women and girls throughout India who were misled by HULN to believe that they needed to be white to be beautiful. The company rebranded the cream from Fair and Lovely to Glow and Lovely, removing the word Fair from the brand.

ITC

ITC Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal. Established in 1910 as the Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited, the company was renamed as the India Tobacco Company Limited in 1970 and later to I.T.C. Limited in 1974. The company now stands renamed to ITC Limited, where "ITC" today is no longer an acronym or an initialised form. ITC has a diversified presence across industries such as Cigarettes, FMCG, Hotels, Packaging, Paperboards & Specialty Papers and Agribusiness. The company completed 100 years in 2010 and as of 2019–20, had an annual turnover of US$10.74 billion and a market capitalisation of US$35 billion. It employs over 36,500 people at more than 60 locations across India and is part of the Forbes 2000 list.

In July 2023, ITC Ltd.'s board of directors approved in principle the demerger of its hotel business and the formation of a wholly owned subsidiary called ITC Hotels. As of March 2024, British American Tobacco is the largest shareholder in the company with a 25.5% stake, followed by Life Insurance Corporation of India which holds 15.2%

"ITC Limited" was originally named "Imperial Tobacco" and was later renamed "Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited", succeeding W.D. & H.O. Wills on 24 August 1910 as a British-owned company registered in Calcutta. Since the company was largely based on agricultural resource, it ventured into partnerships in 1911 with farmers from the southern part of India to source leaf tobacco. Under the company's umbrella, the "Indian Leaf Tobacco Development Company Limited" was formed in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh in 1912. The first cigarette factory of the company was set up in 1913 at Bangalore.

Parle

Parle Products Private Limited is an Indian food products company. It owns the famous biscuit brand Parle-G. In 2019, it had a dominant share of 7% of the global biscuit market but in the last few months the brand grew by leaps and bounds. As of 2020, as per Nielsen, it is the largest selling biscuit brand in the world.

As per Forbes list of India’s 100 richest tycoons, dated October 09, 2024, Vijay Chauhan & family is ranked 34th with a net worth of $8.3 Billion.

Parle Products company was founded in 1929 in British India by the Vile family of Vile Parle, Bombay. Parle began manufacturing biscuits in 1939. In 1947, when India became independent, the company launched an ad campaign, showcasing its Gluco biscuits as an Indian alternative to the British biscuits. The Parle brand became well known in India following the success of products such as the Parle-G biscuits and cold beverages like Goldspot, Thums up and Frooti.

The original Parle company was split into three separate companies, owned by the different factions of the original Chauhan family, with a majority of it owned by Parle Agro products:

Parle Products (1950s), led by Vijay, Sharad and Raj Chauhan (owner of the brands Parle-G, 20-20, Magix, Milkshakti, Melody, Mango Bite, Poppins, Londonderry, Kismi Toffee Bar, Monaco and KrackJack). Parle Agro (1960s), led by Prakash Chauhan and his daughters Schauna, Alisha and Nadia (owner of the brands such as Frooti and Appy).

Parle Bisleri (1970s), led by Ramesh Chauhan, his wife Zainab Chauhan and their daughter Jayanti Chauhan. All three companies continue to use the family trademark name "Parle". The original Parle group was amicably segregated into three non-competing businesses. But a dispute over the use of "Parle" brand arose, when Parle Agro diversified into the confectionery business, thus becoming a competitor to Parle Products. In February 2008, Parle Products sued Parle Agro for using the brand Parle for competing confectionery products. Later, Parle Agro launched its confectionery products under a new design which did not include the Parle brand name. In 2009, the Bombay High Court ruled that Parle Agro can sell its confectionery brands under the brand name "Parle" or "Parle Confi" on condition that it clearly specifies that its products belong to a separate company, which has no relationship with Parle Products.