Hindustan Unilever continued to invest in Advertising and promotion at $156 mln , 12.7% of $1226 mln Q4 sales in India a good 3 times the globa rival P&G and unlikely to grow in more than low single digits despite such huge brand investments. In fact competitior ITC is doing much better having started from nothing in Foods and Personal care just years ago  with its current crop of brands already having two $1 billion candidates among half a dozen such brands

HUL profits are down to $143 mln as input costs continue increasing and the company is unable to pass them off to the consumer, rewriting SKU weights and packaging to create innovative margins and coping well with a stable market share in its food (where it does not really have a string brand except Ashiwad Atta) and slightly less in personal care businesses

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