HUL looks to buy brands to increase product portfolio: Report

Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) is planning to acquire majority stakes in direct-to-consumer brands Wellbeing Nutrition and Conscious Food for strengthening its in-house product categories. The Wellbeing Nutrition transaction is expected to be around $20 million, according to Mint. The size of the Conscious Food deal is not known. The HUL is keen to step up its Annapurna brand, which primarily provides atta and salt. Conscious Food could be housed under the same vertical if the deal is successful. Founded in 2019 by Avnish Chhabria, Wellbeing Nutrition is a plant-based nutrition firm. It provides products across daily wellness, children’s organic nutrition, functional nutrition, and natural nutri-cosmetics. Established in 1990, Conscious Food is involved in the selling of packaged organic food items. It offers products like sprouted ragi flour, sprouted wheat dalia, semolina, spirulina power, Gir cow ghee, digestive mix, herbs and energising tea. According to Wellbeing Nutrition, it works with more than 150 organic farms and suppliers across the world. The company sells its products in more than 2,000 stores in India and over 5,000 stores globally, in the US, UK, and Germany United Arab Emirates. Conscious Food is available nationwide at modern retail brands stores like Nature’s Basket, FabIndia, Foodhall, Westside and HyperCity. It also has a presence on online platforms like Amazon and BigBasket. For entering the nutraceutical space, which is one of the most coveted categories among both institutional and strategic investors, Hindustan Unilever also had a similar discussion with Power Gummies, which is backed by 9Unicorns, Wipro Consumers, DSG Consumer Partners, and Sharpp Ventures (Marico family office), among others. No outcome was yielded by the talks because there were differences over valuation, among other reasons. Power Gummies was introduced in 2018 by Divij Bajaj to offer dietary supplements in chewable form instead of capsules and tablets. Currently, the brand has several variants, which include Gorgeous Hair & Nails (hair & nail vitamin gummies), That Time of the Month (period pain relief gummies), The Beach Body (sugar-free gummies for weight management) and Jaw-Dropping Skin (collagen builder gummies for skin), among others. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.