Surf Excel becomes first Indian home care brand to top $1 bn annual sales

With a total sales of Rs 8,200 crore in 2022, Surf Excel also became HUL's first brand to reach the milestone

Hindustan Unilever's detergent brand, Surf Excel, became the first Indian home and personal care brand to cross one billion dollars in annual sales in 2022, a report in the Economic Times (ET) said. With a total sales of Rs 8,200 crore, it also became HUL's first brand to reach the milestone. 

According to Deepak Subramanian, executive director of home care at HUL, this was made possible due to the "premiumisation" of the segment using liquid detergents and fabric conditioners. 

HUL's second largest brand is Brooke Bond with annual sales of Rs 5,000 crore. 

Subramanian added that marketing and innovation had a big role to play in helping Surf Excel reach the milestone. 

"So, we have taken purpose, performance and innovation and then really de-averaged it through our winning in many India strategy," he told ET. 

Apart from Surf Excel, HUL also has two other detergent care brands, Rin and Sunlight. In all, these have a 43 per cent share of India's detergent market. This is the highest share HUL has grabbed in over a decade. 

Moreover, the sales of Surf Excel have jumped 32 per cent despite inflation mainly due to the increasing preference for the Rs 10 packets. 

HUL has been in the Indian market for over six decades. In 1985, it was removed from the top spot by Nirma. In response, HUL launched Wheel detergent. Later in 2012, Ghari took the top spot. However, for the past three years, Surf Excel has been the segment leader in India.