Corporate Centre Weena 455 3013 AL Rotterdam
Tel	:	010 - 217 40 00
Fax	:	010 - 217 47 98
Email	:	info.nl@unilever.com
Web	:	www.unilever.nl

Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) is India's largest Fast Moving consumer goods company, touching the lives of two out of three Indians with over 20 distinct categories in Home & Personal Care Products and Foods & Beverages. HLL is also one of the country's largest exporters and net foreign exchange earners; it has been recognised as a Golden Super Star Trading House by the Government of India.

The purpose that inspires HLL's 42,300 employees, including over 1,400 managers, is to "meet the everyday needs of people everywhere". It is an ethos HLL shares with its parent company, Unilever, which holds 51.5% of the equity.

HLL's heritage dates back to 1888, when the first Unilever product was introduced in India. Local manufacturing began in the 1930s with the establishment of subsidiary companies. They merged in 1956 to form HLL, the first such company to offer equity to Indian shareholders. Today the company has 360,000 resident shareholders. HLL  is amongst  India's highest valued companies with a market capitalisation of about Rs  40000 Crores. It has consistently focused on value creation for its shareholders.

HLL's 30 Power Brands -- like Lifebuoy, Lux, Rin, Wheel, Fair & Lovely, Brooke Bond, Kissan, Kwality-Walls - are household names across the country and span many categories - soaps, detergents, personal products, tea, coffee, branded staples,  ice cream and culinary products. They are manufactured in close to 80 factories, 28 of them in backward areas. The operations involve over 2,000 suppliers and associates.  HLL's distribution network, comprising about 7,000 redistribution stockists, directly covers the entire urban population, and about 250 million rural consumers.

HLL has traditionally been a company, which incorporates latest technology in all its operations. The Hindustan Lever Research Centre (HLRC) was set up in 1958, and now has facilities in Mumbai and Bangalore. HLRC and the Global Technology Centres in India have over 200 highly qualified scientists and technologists, many with post-doctoral experience acquired in the US and Europe.

HLL's operations are run in an environmentally sound and sustainable manner, ensuring that the processes and products conform to prescribed standards. HLL believes that an organisation's worth is also in the service it renders to the community. The company is active in health & hygiene education, women empowerment, and water managemen, besides rural development, and caring for special children, destitutes and the HIV-positive.

In 2001, HLL launched Project Shakti, a nation-wide initiative to empower underprivileged rural women by providing income-generating opportunities, and improve the standard of living of the rural community, by providing health and hygiene education. It has as of now been scaled up to over 12,000 villages across 100 districts in 8 states.  HLL's vision for Project Shakti is to scale it up across the country, covering 100,000 villages and touching the lives of 100 million rural consumers.

If  Hindustan Lever straddles the Indian corporate world, it is because of being single-minded in identifying itself with Indian aspirations and needs in every walk of life."

For further info of HLL please contact:

Corporate Communications Department Hindustan Lever House 165 / 166, Backbay Reclamation Mumbai - 400 020m
Tel	:	022 - 22 87 06 22 / 22 82 74 11
Fax	:	022 - 22 87 19 70
Email	:	shubho.bhattacharya@unilever.com
Web	:	www.hll.com