Horlicks is owned by Unilever (the United Kingdom, LSE: ULVR), which acquired the brand on 1 April 2020 for €3.3 billion.[1][2] Horlicks was founded in 1873 in the United Kingdom and was independent until 2020.
Evidence: Unilever PLC Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2025, SEC EDGAR, 12 March 2026. Verified from filings; last checked .
Horlicks is a malted milk drink invented in 1873 by two British brothers who had emigrated to Chicago, originally as an infant food and later as a bedtime drink. Unilever acquired the South Asian rights with GlaxoSmithKline's Indian consumer nutrition business in 2020, and the brand is now sold mainly in India and Bangladesh.
A plain count of the times the name appears in the text of each annual report, not counting the start of a sentence. A brand that an owner writes about more is usually one it treats as central.
The USPTO record for the Horlicks mark lists Unilever IP Holdings B.V. as the owner of record (serial number 79399972). That name matches the owner named above.[3]
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
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Unilever controls 53 brands on Brandtree.
The 22 brands in hot chocolate & malt drinks on Brandtree belong to 16 owners. The largest is CasaLuker, with 4.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Chocolatada | CasaLuker | 🇨🇴 Colombia |
| Milo | Nestlé | 🇨🇭 Switzerland |
| Ovaltine | Associated British Foods | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
| Malta Balashi | Balashi Brewery | 🇦🇼 Aruba |
| Malta India | Cervecera de Puerto Rico | 🇵🇷 Puerto Rico |
| Toddy | Empresas Polar | 🇻🇪 Venezuela |
| Coco Crush | Flour Mills of Nigeria | 🇳🇬 Nigeria |
| Malta Rica | Grupo Rica | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic |
Unilever is a publicly listed company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, founded in 1929. Brandtree records 53 brands under its control, and it is listed as LSE: ULVR, NYSE: UL and AEX: UNA.
Unilever is a British consumer goods company formed in 1929 by the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie and British soap maker Lever Brothers. It reports through four business groups: Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care and Foods. Its ice cream business was demerged as The Magnum Ice Cream Company in December 2025.
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 552 brands that began in the United Kingdom. 291 of them (53%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; Horlicks is not one of them.
Unilever acquired GlaxoSmithKline's Indian consumer nutrition business, including Horlicks, in a transaction valued at about €3.3 billion and settled largely in Hindustan Unilever shares. It is one of the largest deals ever done in Indian consumer goods.
The parent company of Horlicks is Unilever, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United Kingdom.
Yes. Horlicks originated in the United Kingdom in 1873 and its owner, Unilever, is also headquartered in the United Kingdom.
Unilever completed its acquisition of Horlicks on 1 April 2020, after announcing the deal on 3 December 2018. The deal was valued at €3.3 billion (enterprise value).
Horlicks was an independent company from its founding in 1873 until Unilever acquired it in 2020.
Yes. As of 26 September 2026, Horlicks is still owned by Unilever. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
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