Don’t see a turnaround in Hindustan Unilever: Radhika Gupta, Forefront Capital Management

Do you believe we will possibly see a turnaround in Hindustan Unilever on the back of the initiatives that the company is taking out in full throttle?

I do not. FMCG in this year and the next year will be about volumes not margins which is where HLL and some of the other large cap guys - ITC and others - will have a problem because the pricing power they have had in the last couple of years is not going to hold. There has been a lot of report about HLL increasing the sales force and taking steps in the stores. What this will result in is more marketing spend, more sales spend that is going to hurt already tight margins. Margins are already tight with inflation rising input cost. The cost of growth will directly impact margins.