In an unexpected call, Sunil D'Souza was offered the post of MD of Tata Group’s FMCG arm, but he was not interested in joining Tata Consumer Products Ltd.
Sunil D’Souza was the MD of electronics appliance major Whirlpool India, attending a conference in San Francisco in USA when he got a call back in 2020. He was offered the post of MD of Tata Group’s FMCG arm Tata Consumer Products Ltd. (TCPL). But D’Souza was not interested as he felt that the company had no direction. That is when he was told that what was deterring him was the exact reason why Tata boss N Chandrasekaran wanted him.
D’Souza then met Chandrasekaran at his office in the legendary Bombay House. The Tata chairman told D’Souza that he wanted to change the fact that the FMCG business was unable to match the worth of brand name and there was no suitable candidate in the company for the turnaround. The talk spurred excitement in D’Souza who decided to take up the challenge and going Tata Consumer Products as MD and CEO as the Covid-19 pandemic peaked in 2020.
What he undertook was a “full-fledged surgery” where he went on a five pronged turnaround strategy, the Fortune reported. With Chandrasekaran’s greenlight, he went ahead and fortified the distribution network, overhauled the product portfolio, led acquisitions, brought in a digital and innovative culture. As a result, the company’s net sales climbed to Rs 13,783 crore in FY23 from Rs 9,637 crore in FY20. The company currently has a market cap of around Rs 88,300 crore.
During a long career in FMCG, D’Souza has also worked for the likes of PepsiCo for almost one and a half decade. He began his career in 1993 at Hindustan Unilever. He is an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta. He also has an engineering degree from the University of Madras. According to TCPL Annual Report for 2022-23, Sunil D’Souza’s remuneration for the year stood at a little over Rs 9.5 crore (Rs 905.25 lakh).
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 "Meet CEO of Rs 88000 crore Tata company, N Chandrasekaran hired IIM alumnus for turnaround, his salary is…")
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