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Boby Kurian

(Right) Mr Venkat Sridhar, Marketing Manager, Hindustan Lever Ltd, and Mr Rishi Pardal, Senior Brand Manager, Deluxe Green Label, at the brand's relaunch in Bangalore.

BANGALORE, Nov 7

THE homegrown Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) brands, Bru and Deluxe Green Label, may power its parent Unilever's coffee foray which is expected to take off in some select South East Asian markets in the near future.

Unilever is finalising its plans to enter the coffee segment in markets such as Vietnam and Philippines and is drawing significantly on HLL's expertise in the Indian coffee market. "We have been working closely with the Unilever team in Vietnam in helping them shape up their coffee plans," HLL sources said. Replying to a query, company officials said Bru and Green label could spearhead Unilever's plans to enter the coffee segment in these emerging markets. "But these brands and our marketing inputs may undergo customisation to suit the local needs," they said.

However, it is not clear whether this brand usage by Unilever would carry any financial benefits for its Indian subsidiary, HLL. Reacting to the news, the industry analysts said the proposed move was hardly surprising given the fact that Unilever has always taken a close look at HLL's success story in the Indian coffee market. "If they enter coffee market, it will be based on the Indian story," they said.

HLL's Green Label and Bru are leading players in the filter and instant coffee segments of the domestic market. The latest industry figures suggest that Green Label has a retail value in excess of Rs 100 crore and accounts for nearly 56 per cent of the value share in the filter coffee segment. The instant variant, Bru, also has a sizeable presence in its category with a retail value estimated at around Rs 190 crore.

Meanwhile, in its fight for `share of throat', HLL is likely to galvanise Bru to tap the increasingly attractive out-of-home liquid coffee retailing segment. Currently, HLL, through Bru, operates about 10,000 vending machines in both institutional and retail segments. "We see this figure doubling in the next two to three years," the company sources said. They added that HLL, which has been exploring the possibility of café chains, was unlikely to take a call on it in the near future

"We will look at how some of our competitors like Nestle fare in this business and keep assessing the opportunity," sources said.

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