Latest News | HUL Temporarily Shuts 3 Factories After Employees Tested COVID Positive

New Delhi, Jul 21 (PTI) FMCG major HUL has temporarily shut down operations of its three factories as several employees in those plants have been tested positive for COVID-19, its Chairman and Managing Director Sanjiv Mehta said on Tuesday.

The three factories are located at Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh, Haridwar in Uttrakhand and one in West Bengal, and around 5,000 people were employed there.

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"There have been these three factories, but I am very confident that we will be able to, in the near future, restart the operations. So, I am very confident that Rajahmundry should be starting very shortly. And then also, in Haridwar we've been working with the authorities," he said while speaking to reporters during the company's earnings conference call.

HUL has 28 factories spread across the country to cater to the demand.

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According to Mehta, for HUL, the safety of the employee is paramount. 

"For us safety is paramount, and we believe we have, in all operations set up, the highest standards of safety, hygiene in the way we operate. But when we see some incidents happening of positive cases, then we go in for extensive testing of all our employees. So we shut down the factory, go into the root causes, do the contact tracing, do the testing.

"And then after we have decontaminated the factories, then, with those people who have tested negative, we re-start the operation," he said.

On being asked about the total number of the people, employed by HUL in all these factories, Mehta said it would be around 5,000.

"Those who have turned positive, our entire focus is looking after them... Those who have been tested, we would only bring them back once they have been tested negative. Our biggest focus, if such (thing) happens, is to look after them," he added.

While talking about rural growth, Mehta said now it is having a faster growth as urban markets.

"Rural India constitutes around 40 per cent of our sales and a bit more of the volume," he said.

According to him, the consumption in the rural area goes up when there is more money in the hands of people.

"In this case, we are concerned because in the quarter preceding crisis (COVID), the rural growth has come down and the good thing is that the government is helping as MANREGA outlay has gone up, the direct transfer of money has been extended and free food and very important harvest is good," he said.

However, Mehta also said it was difficult to share about the underline consumption trends of rural areas as there are severe supply constraints.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)