Confident Of Growing The Business Consistently & Sustainably : Hina Nagarajan

In the last year, we have seen you undertake several initiatives towards making Diageo India a sustainable company. What has been guiding this drive?
A key pillar of our growth strategy is defining and executing an ambitious role for Diageo in society, aligned to ‘Society 2030: Spirit of Progress’, which is our 10-year ESG (environment, social, governance) action plan. We are proud of the progress we have made so far in areas like water stewardship, waste management and circularity, safety performance and corporate governance.

We are working to replenish more water than what was used in the water-stressed sites and are improving water use efficiencies in distilleries and packaging. We have achieved 100 per cent coal-free status in our direct operations and continue to support raw and packaging material suppliers to switch to renewable and low-carbon fuels. We have initiated phased removal of mono-cartons starting with our premium Scotch brands and have collected and recycled all of the plastic waste we generate.

Diageo India did well in FY23Q2 performance with PAT at Rs 523 crore, which was an increase of 105.9 per cent and your net sales increased by 17.7 per cent. Are you expecting this growth trend to continue?
We are a young company in India and the next decade truly belongs to us. In India the premiumisation trend has gained momentum over the past few years with the normalisation of alcohol consumption at home, drinking better and not more and repertoire drinking. We anticipate this trend will be further accelerated. India will have the third largest number of affluent households by 2030, adding 100 million new legal drinking age consumers in the next five years.

We have reshaped our portfolio with a focus on accelerating premiumisation-led growth and addressing the fast-growing cohorts. We will continue to tap into the next sources of growth, drive transformational innovation and renovation, winning liquids and stronger propositions backed by sharp consumer insights. With the consumer at the heart of our business, the strength of our reshaped portfolio and the investment we are making to accelerate our strategic priorities, we are confident of growing the business consistently and sustainably to create long-term value for all our stakeholders.

You’ve been a major champion of D&I ever since you took the helm. Please tell us more about how this shows in other leadership roles at Diageo?
Inclusion and diversity should be an integral part of a company’s strategy with defined goals and an integrated reporting system to track and monitor progress. We have 33 per cent women representation in the leadership team and our ambition is to have 50 per cent women representation in the leadership team by 2025. We lead the way by championing this not just within the business, but also with our partners and our communities and through progressive portrayal in our brands.