Unilever’s Sandeep Kohli To Join Aditya Birla’s Jewellery Venture As CEO
Aditya Birla Group (ABG) has taken significant steps in upping its focus on the newly launched business, Novel Jewels. One of the latest developments in this is the appointment of global business leader, Sandeep Kohli, as the CEO of Novel Jewels, as per industry sources.
Sources indicate that Kohli will assume the new role in April 2024. His experience has seen him handle different mandates at Unilever (UL), the latest being the General Manager and Beauty & Wellbeing Director at Unilever Indonesia. He has also served on the UL board in markets such as India, Indonesia and also North Africa, Middle East, Turkey and Russia region.
This move marks Kohli’s homecoming and also an example of global Indian leaders ‘returning home’ to take on larger mandates.
Poised to compete with the likes of Tata Group’s Tanishq and Reliance Industries’ Jewels, Novel Jewels will invest Rs 5,000 crore to build a nationwide network of large format exclusive stores. In earlier statements, Aditya Birla Group has said that Novel Jewels aims to create an “aspirational national jewellery brand with a strong regional flavour”. India’s gems and jewellery market contributes approximately 7 per cent to the GDP and is expected to reach $70 billion by 2025. The jewellery industry in India is largely driven by individual family-owned businesses with very few national brands.
As per industry sources, Kohli’s appointment will be an important step in ABG’s ambition.
This can be also said to be a big step for Kohli as he deviates from the FMCG sector, which has been the mainstay of his career so far, to India’s growing gems and jewellery sector. Kohli’s cross-market and business expertise will fully come into play in this new role as the sector gains itself an experienced captain.
In the global FMCG industry, Kohli is credited with several success stories at UL, his skill set rooted in strategy development, innovation, P&L management, digital marketing, organisational design and people development. He joined the company in 1993 as a sales and marketing management trainee at HUL and subsequently took on mandates in London and several regions across Asia.
