Delighting Customers Always: Sunil D’Souza, CEO & MD, Tata Consumer Products
Sunil D'Souza is credited with putting Tata Consumer Products (TCPL) on a fast growth trajectory. And he seems to be just the right person with the right credentials for the job. His expertise in understanding and delighting the customers comes from vast experience gained not just in India but abroad. Prior to joining Whirlpool – his last assignment -- D'Souza spent around 15 years at PepsiCo, where he held several leadership roles handling commercial aspects of the company’s foods and beverages portfolio and successfully leading the business in a large cluster of Asian countries.
He began his career at Hindustan Unilever in 1993. With three decades of rich experience, he has strong domain knowledge of the consumer products business with distinct focus on strategy, growth and execution. D'Souza is an engineering graduate from University of Madras and an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC).
Success Amid Stress
Commenting on the transformational journey of Tata Consumer Products during FY21 and later FY22, D'Souza said the year was challenging given the two waves of Covid-19 in India, multiple waves across other international markets where we do business, and a multitude of other factors. "Global supply chain stress and higher energy prices led to widespread inflation, and geopolitical strains further exacerbated the situation. Mitigating the impact required strategic focus, agility and efficient execution," he said.
However, during FY22, TCPL achieved significant milestones in its transformation journey. "We expanded our reach, recorded market share gains in our core businesses while accelerating growth businesses, continued the innovation momentum, and expanded into new categories. Our digital transformation and supply chain optimisation plans were also on track," D'Souza said.
Changes Within
He pointed to another perspective through which one needed look at the company's performance during the past year. And that was internal transformation. "We strengthened our capabilities and our team at all levels, and the organisation is brimming with energy and ideas. Our sustainability agenda is more crystallised as we set out to achieve our ambition of being a leading FMCG player," he said.
During the financial year, the company invested in technology and digitalisation. And the results were for everyone to see. There is sharper, data-driven decision-making. "We also announced a global simplification plan that will reduce the number of legal entities, and drive significant efficiencies, synergies and value. All this is meant to create tangible and sustainable value for our stakeholders," he said.
TCPL managed to perform well in the last few years largely due to the growth of Tata Tea and Tata Salt brands, among others. While tea as a category grew in high single digit in the past three fiscal years, the salt business turned in a 19 per cent three-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR), according to D’Souza.
“We have market leadership and launched several category-first innovations. The three-year CAGR for packaged beverages has been 9 per cent since the formation of TCPL. There has been continued progress on premiumisation, health and wellness platform, strengthening branded coffee portfolio,” said D’Souza.
Focus on premium
D’Souza says for the tea category, TCPL has stepped up its focus on premiumisation. “Our premium brands have been growing faster than the rest of our portfolio. We have strengthened our health and wellness portfolio through innovative products,” D’Souza said.
