Indian Unilever personal care head elevated to global role

09-Mar-2016 - Last updated on 08-Mar-2016 at 18:21 GMT

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Personal care consumer goods giant Unilever recently announced the appointment of its vice present and executive director in India, Samir Singh, to a global executive vice president role.

Moving up from India's Hindustan Unilever, Singh takes on the position of heading up the company's skin care offering globally.

The move, commentators suggest, underlines the company's confidence in the Indian personal care market and Unilever's performance within it, as it elevates Singh to a position of worldwide responsibility.

Sanjiv Mehta, CEO and managing director, Hindustan Unilever, said, "The new appointment emphasizes the importance of HUL and of India for Unilever."

Indeed, Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, recently described India as a market which is emerging with “momentum”.

Unilever in India

In a statement, Hindustan Unilever outlined Sindh's achievements to date, emphasising the company’s high profile within India.

“Singh has successfully led the HUL Personal Care (PC) business not just to consolidate its position as the country's largest PC company, but also driven it to become one of the fastest growing beauty businesses in India.”

Hindustan Unilever is, according to the company, India's largest FMCG business, with more than nine out of every 10 families in the country using its brands' products.

Spotlight on Singh

This isn't the first time Singh has turned his hand to global leadership: in his previous role, he led the global strategy, innovation and communication for Lifebuoy, one of the company's flagship soap brands, in more than 30 key markets across the world.

“Samir has led Lifebuoy to become one of the fastest growing brands in Unilever and Skin Cleansing globally,” the company stated, confirming his reputation for driving sales and growth for Unilever.

“Under his leadership, we have accelerated the pace of innovations, built a Digital and Content development strategy and created new business models for India which will dramatically strengthen the PC business for the future," confirmed Mehta.

Singh will be replaced at Hindustan Unilever by Sandeep Kohli, previously vice president for Unilever in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.