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Tag: LVMH

  • Siddharth Suri returns to Moët Hennessy India as managing director

    Siddharth Suri returns to Moët Hennessy India as managing director

    MUMBAI: The champagne is flowing again. Siddharth Suri has been appointed managing director of Moët Hennessy India, marking a homecoming to the LVMH-owned spirits house where he previously spent over five years. Most recently business head for away-from-home, restaurant and travel retail at Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, Suri brings extensive leadership credentials from across the luxury and fast-moving consumer goods sectors.

    His career spans more than 20 years in sales, marketing and business development. At Diageo India, where he worked for four years until early 2024, he served as national head of strategic key accounts and country lead for Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific emerging markets, driving international sales from Dubai.

    Suri’s earlier tenure at Moët Hennessy included roles as sales director for India travel retail and domestic markets, overseeing operations across India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. He also held senior positions at Pernod Ricard India, including head of region operations and head of sales operations in New Delhi, and at PepsiCo India, where he rose to general manager for market development in Mumbai and zonal sales head for Maharashtra and Goa.

    A graduate of the International Management Institute with a postgraduate diploma in sales, distribution and marketing operations, Suri has built a reputation for transforming and scaling businesses across India and emerging markets.

  • Apparel Group snaps up LVMH marketing veteran for India push

    Apparel Group snaps up LVMH marketing veteran for India push

    MUMBAI: Apparel group has hired Aditi Chakravarty from luxury giant LVMH to spearhead marketing for its sprawling Indian retail empire, signalling ambitious plans to deepen its penetration in the subcontinent’s booming consumer market.

    Chakravarty, who joins as head of marketing, brings formidable credentials from her stint at Moët Hennessy, where she orchestrated the rise of India from sixth to third place globally for the luxury spirits portfolio between 2021 and 2024. Her precision-crafted campaigns for premium whisky brands Glenmorangie and Ardbeg achieved “outsized share of voice” in India’s heavily regulated alcohol market.

    The appointment positions her to oversee marketing for 14 international brands including Aldo, Charles & Keith, Bath & Body Works, Victoria’s Secret and R&B across Apparel Group’s 250-plus Indian stores and digital platforms.

    Her career trajectory reads like a masterclass in modern marketing warfare. At Unilever, she delivered €1.2m in cost savings whilst driving global growth for Lifebuoy, the world’s largest skin-cleansing brand. She then pioneered Hindustan Unilever’s first online-only premium skincare brand, Aviance, scaling it to Rs 50 crore in India’s nascent e-commerce landscape.

    The marketing maven’s most impressive feat came at OmniActive Health Technologies, where she led nutritional supplements brand Setu from zero to a Rs 100 crore direct-to-consumer roadmap, delivering eight-fold growth in six months through what she describes as “earned-owned media mix, funnel optimisation, and lifecycle automation”.

    Her 15-year career spans blue-chip corporations including PepsiCo, where she cut her teeth in innovation and procurement for brands like Kurkure and Baked Lays, and a spell at DCM Shriram managing key accounts across India’s rural retail chain Hariyali Kisan Bazar.

    The hire reflects Apparel group’s determination to leverage India’s consumer boom, as international fashion and beauty brands increasingly view the market as essential to global growth strategies. With her track record of translating “market insights into integrated communication plans that grow brand love, share, and value,”  Chakravarty appears well-equipped for the challenge.

    Her personal motto—”Work hard. Speak the truth. Get your hands dirty”—suggests Apparel Group has found someone unafraid of the gritty realities of retail warfare in one of the world’s most competitive consumer markets.

  • Sularia and Dimitrov: the executives behind Intelligence Node

    Sularia and Dimitrov: the executives behind Intelligence Node

    MUMBAI: It’s as low profile as they come. Mumbai-based retail ecommerce analytics firm  Intelligence Node hit the headlines after it was acquired by global marketing solutions company the  Interpublic group for a healthy $100 million. Not much is known about the firm –  or its founders – to executives in the business world, but it is seen as a star in the world of retail and retail analytics.

    Intelligence Node co-founders CEO Sanjeev Sularia and chief data analytics officer Yasen Dimitrov met each other when they were employed at UK-based  firm ClientKnowledge as heads of analytics & research in 2008 And they hit it off.  The firm was acquired by ICAP in 2010.

    Yasen went on to work for Expand Research as analyst practice leader where he was  responsible for managing and delivering business research projects and strategy initiatives such as market and competitor analysis, benchmarking, KPIs, and helping clients optimise growth. He  also implemented a change-management programme that reduced analyses production time by 45 per cent through a process-re-engineering and formalisation program for the analysis and research groups. The firm was acquired by Boston Consulting Group in 2013.  

    Sanjeev, on his part, joined  Exclusively.in (an e-commerce portal for upscale fashion – now acquired by Snapdeal)  and Shersingh.com (a private label e-commerce fast fashion portal inspired by cricket – now under Myntra)  as CFO between 2011 and 2012. It was there that he gained a deeper understanding of the retail industry and understood what lacunae in terms of data and intelligence plagued retail.

    He created  CIBnode in 2010, the precursor to Intelligence Node, while working at the two firms. His idea was to create one of the world’s largest and cleanest retail databases, tracking over 1.2 billion products across nearly 100 languages.

    Yasen, who was based in the United Arab Emirates,  came on board in 2014 after it evolved into Intelligence Node. He  managed operations, analytics architecture, and category expansion; including building and maintaining the largest database in the industry and a team of top-flight in-house data scientists. Sanjeev focused on client acquisition and making the business vision a possibility

    Along the way they brought in high profile angels to fund their dream project as well as marquee investors including MegaDelta, NEA, Orios VP, CornerStone VP, Caliber VP.

    It is the commitment to accuracy and excellence that has driven the firm to come up with products that wowed  clients such as Walmart, Nestle, Lenovo, LVMH, Prada, Unilever as they tried to stay on top of the global retail trends and the ever-changing consumer.

    Today Intelligence Node’s proprietary AI technology offers competitive intelligence and real-time analytics across pricing and promotions, assortment and availability, digital shelf, and brand compliance.

    Yasen has a master of science in finance degree from Hult International Business School, while Sanjeev is a graduate of London Business School. 

    In an alternate life, Sanjeev would have been a bartender at Lord’s; the home of cricket. An avid cricket fan, he has played professional cricket and waited tables at the Lord’s too. Hence, his extreme level of fitness as he continues to play even to this day, but in local matches. Sanjeev also loves writing and is frequently featured on the Forbes Technology Council.

    With the Interpublic group now acquiring intelligence Node, the duo, along with the team at the company are sure to get the scoreboard ticking even faster. 

  • Reliance MediaWorks yet to conclude PE deal; in talks to extend exclusivity period

    Reliance MediaWorks yet to conclude PE deal; in talks to extend exclusivity period

    MUMBAI: For cash-strapped Reliance MediaWorks (RMW), a big relief was the promise of private equity financing. But the Anil Ambani-controlled film and entertainment services company said Monday it is yet to conclude the Rs 6.05 billion equity investment deal it had signed with a private equity firm last year.

    The company clarified that “no definitive agreement has been executed in respect of the proposed transaction.” RMW has not yet named the private equity firm.

    RMW said it is in talks with the private equity firm to extend the exclusivity term-sheet period for Rs 6.05 billion investment for a minority stake in the company. The window expired on 15 October 2012.

    The company and the fund are in the process of extending the exclusivity period, RMW clarified.

    The company had last year announced that it had signed a term-sheet with an unnamed PE fund to get an investment of Rs 6.05 billion for the debt-ridden company, whose entire net worth got eroded due to consecutive losses.

    The investment was to be made in a subsidiary company of RMW under which the media services division would be housed.

    While Reliance has declined to divulge the name of the PE firm, a report in a business daily had speculated that the company was in talks with L Capital, the private equity arm of the world‘s biggest luxury company LVMH.

    Meanwhile, the company which had extended its financial year till 30 September 2012, has narrowed its net loss to Rs 1.16 billion in the quarter ended 31 December, from Rs 1.5 billion a year earlier.

    RMW’s income from operations for the third quarter remained flat at Rs 2.02 billion against Rs 2.07 billion a year ago. The company also contained its expenses in the third quarter at Rs 2.6 billion against Rs 2.89 billion a year earlier.

    RMW operates three businesses — film distribution under BIG Cinemas, TV production unit under Big Synergy, and a film and media services segment.

    The company‘s loss from film services division before tax and interest widened to Rs 386.3 million in the third quarter from Rs 85.23 million a year earlier, while the revenue from this segment declined to Rs 322.1 million from Rs 534.3 million a year earlier.

    Its loss from theatrical exhibition declined to Rs 220.9 million from Rs 510.3 million a year earlier. However, its revenue remained flat at Rs 1.42 billion against Rs 1.47 billion a year earlier.

    The television/film production and distribution business, the only profitable segment for the company, posted a profit of Rs 98.88 million in the third quarter, up from Rs 17.39 million a year ago. The division’s revenue grew to Rs 334.4 million in the third quarter from Rs 128.8 million in the earlier year.