Hindustan Unilever (HUL) today announced that the company will be integrating the Foods and Refreshment categories in India, effective July 1st, 2018. This integration will help HUL increase organisational agility and better serve local consumers while harnessing the advantage of global scale. The integration of these two categories is also in alignment with the structure of Unilever globally.

The company has also announced some key changes in the Management Committee. Sudhir Sitapati, presently Executive Director, Refreshment, will be re-designated as Executive Director, Foods & Refreshment, and will be responsible for the integrated Foods and Refreshment (F&R) business. He will continue to be a part of the Management Committee of HUL. Sudhir joined the Company in 1999 and has worked in various roles in Customer Development and Marketing across the HPC and F&R categories over the last 19 years.

Geetu Verma, who is the currently the Executive Director, Foods, India, will be moving to Rotterdam as Global VP-Nutrition & Natural Platforms, Unilever. This is a new role designed to grow Unilever's presence in the Health and Wellbeing sector.
 
The Foods & Refreshment business has delivered consistent growth in India. It lends significant scale to Unilever in the region and will continue to be a strategic priority for the business. The Company believes this integration will help drive synergies, become more agile and more consumer-centric.

Shares of the company gained Rs 3.8, or 0.24%, to trade at Rs 1,566.00. The total volume of shares traded was 20,034 at the BSE (12.22 p.m., Tuesday).