HLL to move corporate office to Mumbai suburb

Mumbai, Aug 2: FMCG major Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) today declared that it has decided to move its Corporate office to a new proposed state-of-the-art campus at Andheri in North West Mumbai.

With this move, all the existing business offices of the company both at Bangalore and Mumbai will be integrated and this transition will be completed in 2008, a HLL release to BSE said, adding, the new campus would have a built-up area of over 500,000 sq ft.

HLL Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Douglas Baillie was quoted saying, ''This is a significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to bring the scale and might of 'One HLL' to win in the market place. A unified corporate office will help to further integrate business processes and leverage scale and synergies across the organisation.'' ''It will over time unlock the value of existing business offices fuelling our growth agenda. It will enable us all to drive a single-purpose - 'One HLL' agenda to win with the company's consumers and customers,'' he added.

The company's foods and beverages, home and personal care businesses along with the regional category functions and training centres will work together in the new campus. This co-location will harness synergies between regional category teams and the operating company, the release said.

The transition to the new office will be done in two phases. In Phase I, the Bangalore foods team will be relocated to Mumbai head office by January one next year. In Phase II, the Mumbai head office and training centre will be relocated to the new Andheri campus in 2008.

The organisation has put in place a transition management team which will ensure that the process is transparent, fair and empathetic. For those employees who choose not to relocate on account of any personal reasons, the company's commitment is to ensure their appropriate resettlement.

The new campus will be built for a single purpose -- creating an inspiring work environment. This facility will tangibly demonstrate what the company stand for as an organisation, befitting the company's stature as India's largest and most successful FMCG company and as one of India's pre-eminent corporations, the release added.

UNI