Varun Berry: The Change Agent
Varun Berry was roped in by Britannia Industries at a time when the company was directionless and had an unhealthy balance sheet. Berry took up the challenge and managed to transform the company into a ‘total foods’ major. He also trimmed down costs, revamped the management team, streamlined the product portfolio and brought the focus back on a handful of brands. During his tenure, the FMCG major and the country’s top biscuit maker has rapidly expanded sales and enhanced profits and gained a sizeable marketshare in biscuits even as it continues to gain a bigger foothold into other segments, including dairy and snacking.
During the FY 2017-18, the company posted a net profit of Rs 1,004 crore, which is a 14 per cent jump from Rs 885 crore in the year ago period. During that period, its revenue went up by 10 per cent at Rs. 9,830 crore.
While announcing the recent FY 2017-18 results, Berry highlighted, “We have witnessed positive momentum in the market growth over the last few months. ...Our accelerated cost efficiency program and endeavour to leverage fixed costs have helped us improve our profitability.”
Berry is a Mechanical Engineer from Punjab University and has also attended a course in Strategic Management from Wharton University and the Global Leadership Program at IMD, Switzerland. He has an experience of nearly three decades with premier companies such as Hindustan Unilever and PepsiCo, both in India and overseas and a successful track record in leading startups, turnarounds, joint ventures and growth businesses.
After joining Britannia as Vice President and COO during early 2013, he was later elevated as the managing director in April 2014. “We have progressed well in our journey of building technologically superior factories, in this context, I am pleased to announce that our new greenfield factories at Guwahati and SEZ in Mundra for servicing export markets have been commercialised. In addition, we are also setting up an ‘Integrated Food Park’ at Ranjangaon, Maharashtra and a greenfield plant at Nepal, which will be our fourth country with local manufacturing,” Berry, said in a recent statement.
Talking about the company’s future course of action, he revealed, “In the coming year, priority will be on bridging portfolio gaps in our bakery business and other adjacent macro snacking business opportunities to ensure we stay ahead of market and achieve profitable growth to take our company to the next level.”
In the meantime, Britannia has announced that its Board has re-appointed Varun Berry as its managing director for five years, subject to approval by its shareholders. His re-appointment for another five years starting 1 April 2019 is subject to the approval of members at Britannia’s annual general meeting, the company said in a BSE filing.
