Mumbai: Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) will integrate its foods and refreshment (F&R) categories, just two years after the FMCG major had split the two units.

The integration, which will be effective from July 1, is expected to help HUL increase organisational agility and better serve local consumers apart from harnessing the advantage of global scale.

In a regulatory filing to stock exchanges on Tuesday, HUL said the integration of the two categories is also in alignment with the structure of Unilever globally.

On June 2, 2016, HUL had announced that it would split its F&R business into two separate units in line with its global category structure.

Following the latest rejig, the company announced some key changes in the Management Committee.

Sudhir Sitapati, executive director (refreshment), will now be re-designated as executive director (foods & refreshment) and will be responsible for the integrated F&R business. He will continue to be part of the Management Committee of HUL.

Sudhir joined the company in 1999 and has worked in various roles in customer development and marketing across the home & personal care (HPC) and food & refreshment categories over the last 19 years.

Geetu Verma, who is now executive director, Foods, India, will be moving to Rotterdam as global VP - Nutrition & Natural Platforms, Unilever. This is a new role designed to grow Unilever's presence in the health and wellbeing sector.

According to the company, the foods & refreshment business has delivered consistent growth in India and it lends significant scale to Unilever in the region. "The company believes this integration will help drive synergies, become more agile and more consumer-centric," HUL said.

According to the transcripts of a conference call held with analysts after its fourth-quarter results, foods contribute close to Rs 1300 crore to its turnover. During the fourth quarter, the business saw a reported sales growth (segment turnover growth excluding other operational income) of 2 per cent.