Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited

WALLS

HISTORY

Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited started its operations in 1948. And presently it’s headquarter is at Avari Towers Karachi. LBPL was incorporated as an independent Unilever company in 1955. Lever brothers have a sizzling market share of 60% in Pakistan. And their field of business includes Tea, Detergents, Personal hygiene,         Edible fats, Consumer products and Ice cream. It is offering total of 46 products in Pakistan out of which 26 are profitable and during the year 2002 WALL’S was added as the 27th profitable product. LBPL is committed to provide its customers the quality products and company has never compromised on quality no matter what the cost. This maintenance of consistent quality has given LBPL a competitive edge.

MISSION STATEMENT

The current statement that LBPL is following is as follow:

“Lever brothers will be the foremost consumer product company in Pakistan with care, skin, ice cream and spread. Already positioned in tea, hair, dental and household care, substantially profitable position in cooking oils and fats our strengths come from our people and from combining the best of our international as well as Pakistan origin. Our commitment is to continuously care for the need of our customers, consumers, employees, suppliers, share holders and the community in which we live.”

Introduction of WALLS

In 1993 Lever Brothers formulated a team to search for new business potential in Pakistan. The team concluded that there is a lot of potential in ice-cream market in Pakistan and Lever Brother should enter the ice-cream market without any hesitation and so they decided to launch WALL’S Ice cream in Pakistan. WALL’S is an SBU of Lever Brother--the biggest ice cream manufacturers in the world and second to it is Nestle while other major international ice cream Manufacturers are Haagen-Dazs and Buskin Robius. WALL’S is three times to its competitor Nestle. Also at that time there was a sort of tussle between Nestle and WALL’S as to who will enter the new market first. WALL’S wanted to enter Pakistani Market through acquisition strategy; it wanted to acquire Polka to minimize the time it needed to capture the market. But initially Polka demanded very high price for their company. So WALL’S established an ice cream factory in Pakistan within eleven months which is a record time. And on 26th February 1995, WALL’S launched with twelve products. The launch of WALL’S and its tremendous services and innovative marketing Polka’s market share was lost. At this time Polka tried to sell itself to WALL’S but now WALL’S had done all the hard work which they initially did not want to do by acquiring Polka, so they were not ready to buy Polka. But Polka spread a rumor that Nestle is coming through Polka which obviously WALL’S did not want, so they purchased Polka in 1997. This acquisition made WALL’S an unchallenged market Leader and it also emerged as the “Impulse brand” with new level of excellence in take-home or desert ice cream.

While WALL’S had rejuvenated ice cream consumption in the country, Polka continued to exhibit strengths unique to the business depth and width in distribution knowledge of the trade, native selling skills, tried and proven product successes, several years of trends and strength in specific product categories. The acquisition of Polka provides Unilever ice creams business in Pakistan the best of both worlds. The clear synergy arising out of the two distinct brands is sure to move Unilever into the position of market leader, offering consumers an ever-stronger relationship with Unilever ice creams brands in Pakistan.

WALLS in Pakistan

WALL’S was launched firstly in Lahore in 1995 and later year in Karachi and Islamabad. In 1996, it was launched in Faisalabad and in 1997 it was launched in Multan, Quetta, Hyderabad, Peshawar and Sukhar as well. After the acquisition, Polka became a brand under WALL’S. The strong of Polka were continued and weaker were dropped.

WALL’S, first established its name in the UK market. After having reached a strong position in UK they expanded to different European markets like Germany, France, and New-Zealand etc. The Heart is a famous symbol in over 40 countries around the world. The different ice cream companies of Unilever are united by the Heart logo. They are known by different names in different countries, for example WALL’S in the UK and South East Asia, Streets in Australia, Kibon in Brazil, Algida in Italy, Langnese in Germany and Ola in the Netherlands. Together they produce brands including Magnum, Cornetto, Solero and Carte d'Or. 

The Heart was launched in 1997 to unite Unilever's ice cream businesses and brands, and has grown to become the most-recognized logo in the world of ice cream. In 2003, they announced the next step in building the world's most powerful ice cream brand, re-launching the Heart as a symbol of fun and life in their ice cream.         

Unilever is the world's biggest ice cream business and the home of one of the best-known symbols in ice cream, the Heart. WALL’S is an international brand of ice cream and is one of the most profitable units of Unilever. WALL’S has its 38 plants all over the world. And has a share of 30% of international ice cream market. In Pakistan it is 40-45% of total ice cream market (both organized and unorganized sectors combined).

INTRODUCTION      

The Industry that we are dealing with is food and beverages. Unilever is one of the largest companies of this industry and is a competitor of Proctor and Gamble (P&G). Unilever deals in a variety of products such as: Surf Excel, Dove, Lux, Knorr, WALL’S, Brooke Bond, Lipton, Fair & Lovely, Dalda, and Sun Silk etc. LBPL started its operations in 1948. And presently its headquarters is at Avari Towers Karachi. LBPL was incorporated as an independent Unilever company in 1955. Lever brothers have a sizzling market share of over 60% in Pakistan. It is offering a total of 46 products in Pakistan out of which 26 are profitable and during the year 2002 Wall’s was added as the 27th profitable product. LBPL is committed to provide its customers quality products and company has never compromised on quality no matter what the cost. This maintenance of consistent quality has given LBPL a competitive edge.