Coronavirus Lockdown: Employees facing movement restrictions, plants not operating at full capacity, says HUL

New Delhi: FMCG major Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) on Tuesday said its factories, though operational, are unable to operate at full capacity as its employees continue to face restriction in movement from local authorities in various states amid coronavirus-induced nationwide lockdown. The company is working with local authorities and state governments to ease out movement restrictions. “Most of our factories, many of our distribution centres and majority of our suppliers are operating, but not at their full capacity," a spokesperson of HUL told PTI. [caption id=“attachment_5368351” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] Elaborating further the spokesperson said, “we continue to face local or state restrictions in the movement of our people who are working in essential goods supply chain." Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak The spokesperson further said, “we continue to work with local and state government authorities to get our operations towards the required capacity that the people in our country expect from us.” To optimise its available manpower resources, HUL has shifted to larger order sizes and direct shipping from factories but that is not sufficient to meet the demand. “We have moved to larger order sizes and direct shipping from factories to compensate, but this is far from efficient,” said the HUL spokesperson. HUL, a subsidiary of UK-based Unilever, owns popular household FMCG brands including Lux, Lifebuoy, Surf Excel, Rin, Pond’s, Vaseline, Lakmé, Dove, Pepsodent, Brooke Bond and Kissan. The company owns 28 factories that produce goods from categories including - beauty and personal care, home care and food and refreshment. HUL has about 18,000 employees and had sales of Rs 37,660 crores in FY 2018-19.