It represents the latest investment under Unilever’s overall €100 million programme to advance in-house, digitally enabled fragrance creation capabilities, the company said in a statement.
The hub, set up at the IIT Bombay campus, combines consumer insight, advanced science and AI to accelerate innovation, enhance product experience, and support premiumisation across categories, it added.
Additionally, the colocation at IIT creates opportunities to collaborate with academia, particularly in areas of science and technology, data and digital-first fragrance innovation, HUL said.
Fragrance is an increasingly important driver of product desirability, premiumisation and brand preference across many of Unilever’s categories. The India UFH brings fragrance design, development and evaluation closer to one of the world’s fastest-growing consumer markets, the company said.
India’s expanding consumption base offers rich and diverse insights; the Mumbai hub will harness these insights to design fragrances that can scale globally and drive growth, it added.
“India is one of Unilever’s most important growth markets and a critical engine of innovation for our global business. The inauguration of the Unilever Fragrance Hub in Mumbai reflects our continued investment in cutting-edge capabilities that bring together science, technology and deep consumer insights,” Vivek Sirohi, Head of Unilever Fragrance House, said.
It enables faster local response, deeper market understanding, improved self-reliance in application and evaluation, and a greater ability to design fragrances from the product and consumer context outward, he added.
“Fragrance plays a critical role in elevating the consumer experience and performance of everyday products – from shampoos and body washes to deodorants and laundry detergents. The India lab is a fully integrated fragrance creation, application and evaluation facility, combining proprietary creation software, real-time evaluation data capture and advanced compounding technologies,” Vibhav Sanzgiri, Executive Director, R&D, Hindustan Unilever, said.
This enables teams to design, test and refine fragrances end-to-end, while collaborating seamlessly with other Unilever fragrance hubs globally, he noted.
The new hub underscores Unilever’s continued commitment to India as a priority market and a global centre of excellence, the company said.
