Unilever says it is ahead of target in capturing P&G’s vacuum in Pakistan

Unilever Pakistan, one of the country’s largest FMCG companies, says it is running ahead of its internal targets in capturing the market space left behind by its long-time competitor, Procter & Gamble (P&G), which exited the South Asian country last year.

According to Ammad Danish, the company’s Head of Home Care, the vacuum left by P&G is an opportunity that multiple organised players are now competing to absorb.

“I think this is very unfortunate that P&G had to leave. I’m a firm believer in competition; it keeps you on your toes,” said Danish in an exclusive interview with Business Recorder.

An alumnus of the Institute of Business Administration with over twenty years of corporate experience, Danish believes that international competition tends to bring “fair play” to a market.

On the other hand, local players “don’t always play by the rules when it comes to taxation, formulation, pricing,” and make for a tougher market experience, said Danish.

The executive declined to share specific volume or revenue figures tied to the market-share gains, but said Unilever went into the situation with a clear plan. “We are ahead of track, and I think that’s a great place to be in. We will continue that next year,” he said, adding that results so far have exceeded the company’s own expectations.

Danish was careful to note that three to four organised players, and not Unilever alone, were competing for the share.

“We all went for the pie that P&G vacated.”

Danish termed P&G’s departure as a wider industry concern rather than a straightforward win for competitors. “If organised players don’t operate, it’s bad for the government, because there’s a certain amount of taxation income that goes out.”

In October 2025, P&G announced its decision to discontinue business operations in Pakistan as part of a global restructuring plan aimed at accelerating growth and value creation.

Meanwhile, for Unilever, the P&G opportunity landed at a moment when Unilever’s Home Care division, which includes brands like Surf Excel, Vim, etc, was already in the middle of a multi-year turnaround.

Danish said the unit had gone through a “lull period” of three to four years without standout performance, but has delivered competitive growth over the past 24 to 36 months. “Competitive growth means market-beating growth.”

He attributed the recovery to a restructuring that divided Unilever Pakistan into four focused business units and to a deliberate shift in philosophy: “We put the consumer back at the heart, not the P&L [profit and loss],” he said.

This approach has fed directly into new product launches, including Surf Excel Whites and Surf Excel Liquid, which Danish credits with strengthening the brand’s position.

Moreover, Unilever’s ability to move quickly, Danish said, was also helped by supply-chain resilience during a period when the Middle East crisis disrupted raw material imports.

“The powder market [detergent] is heavily dependent on raw materials from the Middle East. All players in Pakistan were impacted. There were local shortages where raw material wasn’t coming in,” Danish shared.

“This is where a multinational’s strength shows. With presence across markets, our vendor negotiation ability is stronger. We sustained that pressure better, and that’s become our strength in growth,” he added.

A part of Unilever Home Care strategy has been building a liquids market from scratch as Pakistan’s fabric-care market remains dominated by powder detergents, which still account for about 99% of the category.

Danish shared that the liquid segment has observed tremendous growth. “We’re practically doubling every few quarters driven by consumer demand.”

However, he admitted that Unilever alone cannot drive the shift. He said when detergent powders replaced washing clothes with soap bars, “multiple companies spoke about the benefits. The same needs to happen for liquids. If one player promotes liquids, it won’t accelerate conversion,” he said.

Talking about the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on the industry, Danish said that Unilever Pakistan was increasingly using AI for planning, insight generation, content creation, and performance management.

“From ideation to execution, what took 3 weeks now takes 3 days. Man-hours saved are impeccable,” he said.

The company is also using AI to tap into Unilever’s global research base to simulate the impact of product or formulation changes without always needing fresh consumer testing.

“We’re moving a lot of testing to digital. It’s 95%+ accurate. That saves cost and time, so decisions are faster and we can invest more back into the consumer,” he said.

Sharing his 5-year plan, Danish said that he intends “to become the biggest home care business in Pakistan,” overtaking Colgate Palmolive.

“It’s an exciting time. If we keep the consumer at the centre and use tools like AI to enable our people, not replace them, I think home care has a very strong future in Pakistan.”