Britannia Industries said on Monday that Varun Berry, vice-chairman, MD, and CEO of the company, has tendered his resignation and will cease to be the chief executive from November 10. The board has also approved the appointment of Rakshit Hargave as the MD and CEO, effective December 15.

In the interim period, N. Venkataraman, currently the executive director and CFO of Britannia, will take on the additional charge of CEO. Most recently, Hargave was the CEO of Birla Opus, the paints venture of Grasim Industries of the Aditya Birla Group. 

At Birla Opus, Hargave is credited with playing an indelible role in the start-up and scaling-up stages of the decorative paints business—along with helping build a high-performing team, establishing six integrated manufacturing facilities, and scaling the distribution and supply chain network. According to Birla Opus, this formed a strong foundation for the company to grow its paint brand and business.

Prior to this role as the head honcho of Birla Opus, Hargave held operational, sales, marketing, and leadership roles at various companies, including Beiersdorf, Hindustan Unilever, Jubilant Foodworks, Nestle India, and Tata Motors—both within and beyond India. Hargave holds a management degree from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi, and an electrical engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi.

Additionally, at its meeting held on 5th November, the board of directors also identified five levers of growth for Britannia to become a global total foods company in the near future. This includes:

1. Leadership in innovation and diversification

Britannia Industries reported a second-quarter consolidated revenue from operations of ₹4,840 crore, a 4.1% year-on-year growth from the year-ago period, where it reported a top-line figure of ₹4,667 crore. It reported a net profit of ₹655 crore, compared to ₹520 crore in the previous quarter and ₹532 crore in the year-ago period.

The company also acknowledged that approximately 85% of its business was affected by changes to GST rates that came into effect on 22nd September. It noted short-term headwinds to business seen in September due to distributor and channel partner de-stocking and delayed consumer buying. The transitional impact, however, is expected to get normalised progressively in the ongoing quarter.