- By Shreyansh Mangla
- Fri, 11 Jul 2025 01:07 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Priya Nair Profile: Businesswoman Priya Nair has been named as the first woman CEO and Managing Director of Hindustan Unilever Limited. HUL, a Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) giant, appointed Nair for a five-year tenure, starting August 1, 2025. She is set to take over from Rohit Jawa, who stepped down after serving for two years, citing a desire for new personal and professional growth opportunities.
HUL is a household name in India, offering products across foods, beverages, home care, and personal care categories. Some of HUL's well-known brands include Surf Excel, Dove, Lux, Lifebuoy, and many more.
ALSO READ: Hindustan Unilever Ltd Share Price Falls Over 5% After Profit Drops In Second Quarter
Why HUL Needed a New CEO
Recently, HUL has faced challenges with slowing sales, exerting pressure on its profits and overall growth. In response to increasing competition from online rivals, the board members, in conjunction with its parent company Unilever, opted for a leadership change to revitalise HUL's performance.
Who is Priya Nair?
Priya Nair is set to become the new CEO and Managing Director of Hindustan Unilever, with her five-year tenure commencing on August 1. She will make history as the first woman to lead this major Indian consumer company, succeeding Rohit Jawa.
Why Was Priya Nair Chosen?
Priya Nair's appointment is largely attributed to her extensive experience with Unilever, spanning nearly 30 years, coupled with her profound understanding of the Indian market. She has a proven track record of revitalising struggling businesses, fostering growth, and guiding teams through crucial phases of development. Nair began her career with Unilever in 1995, holding various roles in sales and marketing. She previously spearheaded HUL's beauty and personal care as well as homecare businesses, significantly enhancing the latter's performance.
Prior to this new role, she served as the President of Beauty & Wellbeing at Unilever Global from January 2024, overseeing a substantial business portfolio. Before that, she held the position of Global Chief Marketing Officer for the same division.
ALSO READ: Hindustan Unilever Shares Tank Over 4% On Decline In Profit In Q4
Priya Nair's role at HUL comes at a challenging time as the company is experiencing sluggish demand, with consumers switching to other brands for their FMCG needs. The slow buying has started to cause losses to the company, leading to profit pressures. This is not causing their product costs to rise; rather, it's forcing them to lower the prices of some of their mainstream products to compete.
Adding to this, HUL faces stiff competition from new online brands and smaller companies like Mamaearth, MyGlamm, and Minimalist, making it much harder to attract and keep customers.
HUL is struggling to grow – a company of this mammoth size was only able to sell 2% more compared to its previous fiscal year. This tiny volume growth is a bad sign for a company of this size, as it signals that HUL is either struggling to get more customers or even retain existing customers.
Why Experts Are Positive About Priya Nair
Many analysts believe that Nair is perfect for the job of CEO, for a few reasons:
Nair has a deep understanding of the Indian consumer market and their mindset. She understands the tastes and preferences of local customers and what they need and want. This is not mere guesswork, as her understanding of the market comes from decades of industry experience.
Analysts believe that Priya has had a strong track record, partly because of her stellar performance at Unilever, making businesses profitable and sustainable.
Her aggressive stance will not be perceived negatively here, as Nair is expected to be a very active, bold, and determined leader. She does not seem to belong to the "sit back and relax" types; instead, her aggressive stance will ensure that HUL is headed by an active, bold, and determined leader.
As HUL sells many basic daily needs products, which include soaps and tea, it becomes necessary for HUL to defend their core market share. Analysts predict that Nair has to toil hard so that HUL does not lose grip from the top spots in selling everyday items, especially in the days of startups and unicorns popping up.
Nair is predicted to focus on selling premium segments of HUL's product category; that is, she will focus on doubling down on premium products, which are often expected to bring more profit.
Priya is expected to work on lagging assets such as HUL's Horlicks, which is not doing well in terms of making profits. Nair is expected to work on company underperforming products.
It is crucial to note that Unilever, which is an FMCG giant the world across, brings 11% of its total sales from India. Thus, Priya Nair's new role fits perfectly with Unilever's global strategy because it sees India as a crucial "anchor market," one of the two key regions (the first being the United States), bringing about 11% of Unilever's total sales. While HUL traditionally focused on making more profits from each sale, experts now think that the immediate goal for HUL must be growth, i.e., selling more products and broadening their target customers.
ALSO READ: 'Fair & Lovely is now 'Glow & Lovely': Twitter reacts
Priya Nair's role at HUL comes at a challenging time as the company is experiencing sluggish demand, with consumers switching to other brands for their FMCG needs. The slow buying has started to cause losses to the company, leading to profit pressures. Adding to this, HUL faces stiff competition from new online brands and smaller companies like Mamaearth, MyGlamm, and Minimalist, making it much harder to attract and keep customers.
Unilever, which is an FMCG giant across the world, brings 11 per cent of its total sales from India. Thus, Priya Nair's new role fits perfectly with Unilever's global strategy because it sees India as a crucial "anchor market," one of the two key regions (the first being the United States).
Why Experts Are Positive About Priya Nair?
Many analysts believe that Nair is perfect for the job of CEO, for a few reasons:
- Nair has a deep understanding of the Indian consumer market and their mindset. She understands the tastes and preferences of local customers and what they need and want. This is not mere guesswork, as her understanding of the market comes from decades of industry experience.
- Analysts believe that Priya has had a strong track record, partly because of her stellar performance at Unilever, making businesses profitable and sustainable.
- Her aggressive stance will not be perceived negatively here, as Nair is expected to be a very active, bold, and determined leader. She does not seem to belong to the "sit back and relax" types; instead, her aggressive stance will ensure that HUL is headed by an active, bold, and determined leader.
- Nair is predicted to focus on selling premium segments of HUL's product category; that is, she will focus on doubling down on premium products, which are often expected to bring more profit.
- Priya is expected to work on lagging assets such as HUL's Horlicks, which is not doing well in terms of making profits. Nair is expected to work on company's underperforming products
