Britannia appoints Rajneet Kohli as CEO

FMCG giant Britannia Industries, one of the country's oldest consumer goods company, is making some changes to its management lineup. While Rajneet Kohli, who has been serving at Dominos for the last one and half years, will take over as its new CEO, while Varun Berry will be the new executive vice-president and Managing Director.

Kohli, a food and beverages industry veteran, has a proven track record of delivering key roles across leading brands. Kohli's stint in India began with Asian Paints as its regional manager, as an MBA from the University of Wales, Cardiff. After serving for nearly 14 years at Coca-Cola Company and leading its business in North, West, and Central India as a senior vice-president, he moved on to Jubilant Foods to become president and chief business officer for Dominos. Kohli is a seasoned consumer goods professional with over 25 years of experience.

Industry experts have said that Kohli will not be without challenges in his new role at Britannia. Kohli joins the company at a time when the company is facing challenges from the high commodities prices and steep price hikes, which has resulted in poor volume offtake. The company's revenue grew 8.7 per cent on the back of a 20 per cent price hike, as per KR Choksey. Its margins and bottomline didn't shrink, and that didn't help it.

Britannia's net profit fell by 13.4 per cent year-on-year, but its EBITDA earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin fell by 274 basis points to 13.5 per cent, which is the lowest in eight years. The net profit margin fell by 233 bps to 9.1 per cent.

Britannia is taking additional price hikes to cover the commodity pressure, as per analysts in HDFC Securities. According to them, bringing the volume offtake back to earlier levels will be a key challenge for management and Kohli. They said that volume growth acceleration and improvement in the margin will be a tough task in the current challenging demand environment.