MUMBAI: Pidilite Industries has announced a shake-up in its top brass, appointing Sudhanshu Vats as managing director and Kavinder Singh as joint managing director, effective from 10 April 2025. This move comes as Bharat Puri, who’s steered the company for a decade, steps down from his managing director role.
The board expressed “deep appreciation and gratitude” for Puri’s “valuable contributions..” Puri, who’s been at the helm since 10 April 2015, will transition to a non-executive and non-independent director role for a three-year term. M.B. Parekh, executive chairman of Pidilite, waxed eloquent about Puri’s tenure, stating, “Pidilite has made substantial progress and created significant shareholder value during his term.” He also welcomed Vats and Singh, saying their appointments “will reflect the next phase of the Pidilite leadership journey.”
Meanwhile, in a separate announcement, the company also appointed Durai Babu Sreenivasan as chief business officer (industrial products – IP), effective from 1 April 2025. Sreenivasan, a seasoned sales and marketing veteran with over 31 years of experience in the adhesives sector, joins Pidilite’s senior management team. He’s had stints at Henkel Adhesives Technologies, Raghavendra Chemicals, and Delta Forge., and holds an MBA in Marketing from Annamalai University.
MUMBAI, 13 March 2025 – In a brilliantly adhesive marketing move, Pidilite Industries has slapped its iconic Fevicol brand onto Marol Naka Metro Station, permanently bonding itself to one of Mumbai’s busiest commuter hubs.
The station, now officially dubbed Fevicol Marol Naka, marks the first time the adhesive giant has glued its name to public infrastructure, creating an unmissable presence in a location that sees millions of Mumbaikars pass through its gates daily.
The rebrand coincides with what would have been the 101st birthday of Pidilite’s founder, the late Balvantray Kalyanji Parekh, whose first manufacturing facility stood a stone’s throw from the station – a connection that company bigwigs were keen to cement.
“At Pidilite, we believe in building lasting bonds,” said managing director Bharat Puri in what must surely rank as the most on-brand statement ever delivered. “This initiative brings immense pride to our employees who frequent this station daily.”
The station makeover, which reportedly cost Pidilite a packet that would make even Mumbai’s eye-watering property prices look reasonable, includes playful artwork featuring the brand’s legendary humorous advertisements that have stuck in the nation’s collective consciousness for decades.
For commuters accustomed to Mumbai’s famously packed trains, the irony of being sandwiched together in carriages sponsored by the country’s most famous adhesive won’t be lost.
Madison’s outdoor media specialists MOMS orchestrated the deal, with CEO Jayesh Yagnik noting that metro stations offer brands “an effective and meaningful targeted audience.”
Times OOH – which is the the sole concessionaire of Mumbai Metro Line1 – COO Rohit Chopra was quite cock-a-hoop about the station branding. Said he: “ Times OOH is committed to delivering impactful brand experiences through high-visibility transit media solutions. We are confident that this station will prove to be a valuable addition to the brand’s marketing initiatives.”
Industry insiders suggest this high-visibility gambit could trigger a rush of copycat deals, as brands scramble to paste their identities onto Mumbai’s expanding metro network before the best stations are taken. Chopra is surely going find himself busy fielding proposals.
For now, Fevicol has ensured that its relationship with Mumbai’s commuters will be exactly what its products promise: impossible to separate.
MUMBAI: Dr. Fixit has turned up the entertainment quotient with its latest campaign, featuring none other than movie legend Amitabh Bachchan, proving once again why it’s Waterproofing Ka Baap. In a quirky and engaging TVC, Bachchan not only lends his voice to the jingle but also brings his signature wit to highlight the importance of advanced waterproofing solutions keeping homes dry, no matter how torrential the downpour.
Celebrating 25 years of Dr. Fixit, the campaign, conceptualised by Ogilvy and directed by Prasoon Pandey, blends humour with an unforgettable tune. With lines like Paani hai baahar, sookha hai andar, Dono ko never mix it, the ad cleverly reinforces the brand’s expertise in keeping homes leak-free.
Pidilite Industries Ltd MD Bharat Puri expressed enthusiasm for the campaign’s fresh approach. “Mr. Bachchan’s presence, combined with a humour-infused narrative, makes this campaign both engaging and informative. Dr. Fixit has been a trusted waterproofing expert for years, and this campaign solidifies our commitment to keeping homes safe and worry-free.”
The TVC is part of a larger multimedia push, spanning television, digital, and OTT platforms, ensuring that Dr. Fixit’s legacy of protection reaches every homeowner. With Amitabh Bachchan at the helm and a jingle that sticks, this campaign makes one thing clear, when it comes to waterproofing, Dr. Fixit reigns supreme.
MUMBAI: Pidilite has approved a definitive agreement with US-based Huntsman Group for acquiring 100 per cent stake in one of their subsidiaries in India – Huntsman Advanced Materials Solutions Private Ltd (HAMSPL) – for Rs 2,100 crores.
HAMSPL manufactures and sells adhesives, sealants and other products under Araldite, Araldite Karpenter and Arasealin India. In the calendar year 2019, its business revenue was approximately Rs 400 crores. In addition to the Indian sub-continent business, the acquisition includes a trademark license for Middle East, Africa and ASEAN countries.
Under the agreement, Huntsman will receive approximately 90 per cent of the cash consideration at closing and balance approximately 10 per cent under an earnout within 18 months if the business achieves sales revenue in-line with 2019. The transaction is expected to close by next week. HAMSPL has a nation-wide distribution network and a strong presence in retail trade.
Pidilite Industries Ltd executive director Apurva Parekh said, “Araldite is an iconic brand and a market leader in epoxy adhesives in India. We are thankful for all the support extended by the Huntsman group and we are confident that our association will remain strong going forward.”
Pidilite managing director Bharat Puri stated, “With this acquisition, Araldite will add to the already very strong portfolio of Pidilite’s adhesive and sealant brands and will complement our retail portfolio. We are confident that this acquisition will create significant shareholder value through strong revenue and cost synergies.”
MUMBAI: Fevicol has been conferred with Brand Campaign of the year at the CNBC-TV18’s 15 Indian Business Leader Awards (IBLA), for its new ad campaign celebrating Fevicol’s 60 years milestone.
Conceptualized by Ogilvy, Pidilite’s creative agency, TVC reinforces the brand idea of ‘unbreakable bonds’, with the tagline ‘Barson se Barson Tak’. The film beautifully highlights Fevicol’s journey over the years in its typical human and humorous fashion. It further showcases the strength of Fevicol, while drawing parallels with the changing paradigms of Indian social and cultural scenario.
The award was presented by Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman to Pidilite Industries chairman M.B. Parekh, Bharat Puri, Pidilite Industries managing director Piyush Pandey, Ogilvy worldwide and executive chairman India chief creative officer Prasoon Pandey, Ad Filmmaker, Corcoise Films.
Pidilite Industries managing director Bharat Puri said: “We are delightful and honoured to receive such a prestigious award. Fevicol, over 60 years has been one of the most trusted brands in Indian households. The brand is loved by consumers for its reliable performance as well as contemporary advertising and the 60-year campaign salutes this long-standing relationship with consumers and contractors.”
The campaign that won a million hearts also received phenomenal engagement on social media. The 90-second creative received 113 million completed views on various digital platforms apart from the innumerable shares on WhatsApp groups. The innovative usage of digital channels to propagate the campaign creative as content on OTT platforms such as Hotstar, Zee 5 struck a chord with the netizens.
The award sought to recognize the most impactful mass media/ advertising campaign and the jury members shortlisted the nominees based on criteria such as campaigns/communication that has been acknowledged and featured at industry forums, panels, and awards.
MUMBAI: Marking its 60th anniversary in the Indian industry, adhesive brand Fevicol, from the house of Pidilite, is going to launch a new mega campaign capturing its bonding qualities. The 90-second-long campaign is not only going to be the longest by Fevicol ever, but will probably be the first campaign to run as a separate content on OTT platforms like Hotstar, SonyLIV, ZEE5, etc.
The campaign was launched by Pidilite Industries Ltd MD Bharat Puri and Ogilvy chief creative officer worldwide and executive chairman India Piyush Pandey in Mumbai on Monday.
Speaking about the long duration of the campaign in the world of 10-second long narratives, Puri said that if one has a story to tell, the writing is good and narrative is appealing, people will surely watch the whole ad. He insisted that to give the completion of 60 years of an iconic brand like Fevicol a greater impact, it was necessary to create a film and not just an ad film. And that is also why it is being hosted as a separate film on OTT platforms.
The TVC tells the story of a two-seater sofa, covering its 60-year-long journey across households, generations, and families in Fevicol’s signature humorous and human fashion set against a peppy background score in Bihari dialect, written by Prasoon Pandey. The ad has simultaneously been created in six languages including Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu.
Speaking about the storyboard of the ad, Piyush Pandey revealed that Fevicol has always had an integral approach to make its ads look inherently Indian. “I have been working with this brand for more than four decades and we have never subtitled the ads even for international festivals like Cannes. There are a few things that are cultural yet universal and Fevicol ads have been using that narrative in its ads since ever.”
Puri added that Fevicol’s vocabulary has always been the one that brings out a sweet smile on the viewer’s face with its humorous approach and has never relied on laugh-out-loud intakes. He shared that the new TVC is built on the same core principles of keeping its Indianness and subtle humour alive.
In its first leg, Fevicol has kept a budget of Rs 20 crore for the campaign which will go live on TV and digital platforms supported by radio and cinema.
Pidilite Industries Ltd CEO Fevicol division Nitin Chaudhary told Indiantelevision.com that the ad will go live on genres on TV including news and movies with a major focus on GECs. Given the constraint of running a 90-second ad on TV, it might not be placed during sports events like one-day matches.
He also shared that apart from TVC, several activities and campaigns have been planned for stakeholders in the B2B domain, while for consumers the TVC is the only marketing output.
Puri, during the press conference, mentioned that they had also created a small prank campaign for the employees of Fevicol and Pidilite by duping into believing that the iconic elephants of the brand will be retiring on the 60th anniversary.
