Many companies discovering where India is on the map, but we know every zipcode: Unilever CEO

New business data points to the fact that Consumer goods major Unilever sees India as the only consumer market offering large, exponential potential for expansion over the next five years, helped by rapid urbanisation, increasing participation of women in the workforce and wealth expansion.

“India is, by far, our biggest market in emerging markets. If you look at the next five years, it's probably the market that, for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), reveals the only large exponential expansion potential,” Fernando Fernandez, chief executive officer of Unilever, told market participants during the 2026 edition of Barclays’ 19th annual global consumer conference.

“We believe India will have significant expansion of per capita consumption and when you compare absolute expansion, it will only be behind the US in terms of contribution to the FMCG market,” he stated.

Emerging markets, which contribute 62 percent to Unilever’s overall topline, will be the fundamental drivers of expansion for the maker of Dove soaps and Vaseline.

“Superior population expansion, significant urbanisation potential, expansion of female presence in the workforce, wealth expansion, and fragmentation of number of households are all fundamental trends that backing superior expansion in emerging markets,” Fernandez stated.

Structural shifts driving India’s expansion

Priya Nair, CEO and managing director at Hindustan Unilever, highlighted the structural shifts driving change in the Indian market — a growing Gen Z consumer cohort, more than 43 percent participation of women in the workforce in 2026, up from 25 percent in 2018, and increased internet penetration and road connectivity, which are helping modernise villages.

The Indian arm of the global major has identified four strategies to drive expansion: increasing consumption occasions as consumers become more affluent; increasing premiumisation as they move from mass to premium brand offerings; market making or developing new segments and categories; and creating new spaces for newer formats such as hairstyling and dry shampoos.

In the beauty and wellbeing segment, Nair identified significant headroom to expand brands such as Dove into adjacencies like body wash and skin cleansing, and gain penetration in new categories such as sun protection with the Lakme brand.

Home care, which contributes roughly 37 percent of HUL’s turnover, is another major expansion opportunity. Nair sees potential in the segment as consumers move from detergent bars to powders and liquids.

At its capital markets day last week, HUL stated it is investing disproportionately in its premium brands — two times more — and spending more than 60 percent of its digital media budget on them, as its market share in the premium segment grows at 1.3 times that of its mass-segment products. The maker of Surf Excel detergent additionally announced an gain in its capital expenditure (capex) target to around 3 percent of its annual turnover, up from roughly 2 percent during the past five years.

“There are serious structural shifts in India that make it, particularly with the slowdown in China, the only exponential expansion opportunity globally. Many firms are discovering where India is on the map…but we know the map of every zipcode in India. It is a blueprint of what we are doing in emerging markets,” Fernandez stated.