Mumbai, Dec. 16: Buoyed by a double digit growth in business, Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) today sent out a strong signal to its rivals that come 2006, they should be prepared for an onslaught in the market place from the FMCG giant.

HLL is planning to expand the ‘core’ of its business ? laundry and haircare. The thrust is now on building core functional capabilities and creating a more agile and consumer oriented company to achieve sustainable growth and competitiveness.

“While we will have to fight some new battles, we will have to fight old battles as well. We will be ready for it'', Harish Manwani, HLL chairman, told reporters after announcing the appointment of Douglas Baillie as the CEO and managing director of the company.

Manwani said, “There is only one measure of success and that is market share. In no way, we will weaken our position in core categories.” “Having identified this,” he added, “HLL will continue its quest for market share gains in key categories in the next year also.”

According to the HLL chief, the company has not only recorded a double digit growth in its haircare and laundry products businesses, the growth was broad-based across all segments. For instance, its Wheel brand has become the largest detergent brand in the country as it has notched up sales of over Rs 1000 crore. Moreover, HLL has seen its share grow in tea by over 120 basis points and in coffee, too, the share rose by more than 250 basis points.

The plan now is to grow its foods business further. Manwani indicated that HLL will refurbish its foods products portfolio. The company had relaunched its Annapurna and Kissan brands recently.

However, the market leadership will not be the lone criteria for HLL. “Market leadership, thought leadership and cost leadership are the important aspects of how we want to do business,” Manwani said.

“Make no mistake about it, we are interested in remaining competitive, and we will continue to invest in brands to satisfy consumers,” he pointed out.