Adi Godrej steps aside, daughter Nisaba gets flagship baton

Vivek Gambhir will continue as managing director and CEO.

Commenting on the leadership changes, Adi Godrej said: “It has been a privilege to serve as the chairman during a period when we have delivered strong results and transformed the company. I am grateful to our Board for their thoughtful and planned approach to executing our succession plan. The foundations of GCPL are extremely strong.”

“This is an opportune time to transition to a new chairperson, who will lead the company in its next phase of growth. I feel very confident that Nisa will be an outstanding executive chairperson. Over the last decade, I have worked closely with her and seen her deliver tremendous results. She is an inspiring leader who will always uphold our values. I will continue to serve the GCPL board and contribute in whatever way I can to GCPL’s success and long term growth,” he said.

“Nisaba has been a key architect of GCPL’s strategy and transformation in the last decade. In 2007 she initiated and led Project Leapfrog, which created a playbook for GCPL to accelerate domestic organic growth through innovation and consolidation, and to become a more global company by investing in emerging markets outside of India,” GCPl said.

Over the last ten years, GCPL’s market capitalisation has increased 20-fold — from

Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore. “Under Nisaba’s leadership, GCPL has developed a very strong, engaged and ambitious team, and consistently ranked as a great place to work. She has also institutionalised design driven thinking and directly leads product development. She has served on the GCPL Board of Directors since 2011,” GCPL said.

Adi Godrej’s brother Nadir Godrej is the managing director of Godrej Industries and chairman of Godrej Agrovet and his cousin Jamshyd Godrej is the chairman and MD of Godrej & Boyce.

Nisaba Godrej, who has an MBA from Harvard Business School, said: “I am honoured to assume the chairpersonship of this wonderful company. I want to thank the Board for their confidence in me. I promise to serve all GCPL’s stakeholders whole heartedly and assure them that the values our chairman has taught us, combined with his disciplined, results-driven, and humble approach, will always be the core of our DNA. I look forward to the continued guidance of the chairman emeritus to our board, Vivek and me, as we drive GCPL forward with deep ambition, hard work and a strong sense of purpose.”

Meanwhile, GCPL has reported a three-fold jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 389.91 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2017 driven by strong sales growth in most categories. It had posted a net profit of Rs 124.84 in the January-March period a year ago. Net sales during the period under review was up 12.51 per cent to Rs 2,480.17 crore as against Rs 2,204.36 crore.

GCPL shares zoomed by 9.74 per cent to Rs 1,929.25 on the BSE on Tuesday.