Hina Nagarajan will lead India’s biggest liquor company – Times of India

BENGALURU: A woman will lead India’s biggest liquor company, United Spirits (USL). Hina Nagarajan, who is the managing director of Africa emerging markets for Diageo, which owns USL, will take over from current CEO & MD Anand Kripalu in July.
The liquor industry tends to be dominated by men, its products are consumed far more by men than by women, and in India, women — especially poorer women — have often virulently opposed liquor consumption. Nagarajan, who was associated with Reckitt Benckiser earlier, will not be the first woman to lead a spirits company in India, but will be the first to head a very large liquor company.
Abanti Sankaranarayan, who is currently the chief strategy and corporate affairs officer at USL, was the MD of Diageo India between 2010 and 2015, but that was when the British drinks giant had a very small presence in India. Diageo vaulted to the No. 1 position here after its acquisition of USL.

Kripalu will step down at the end of June, more than a year before his contract expires, the company said.
Kripalu came on board at the end of 2013, and assumed the top role in May the following year. He leaves after a very tough year, the Covid pandemic having led to bars, pubs, hotels and restaurants shutting down and retail store sales plummeting. Fortunes of beer and spirits companies were adversely impacted multiple times over the past few years, including after demonetisation and the ban on sale of liquor along highways, a ban that was lifted after some months.
USL extended Kripalu’s term till 2022 last year, but the company said he is leaving to pursue other opportunities.
Under Kripalu, who had stints in Mondelez and Unilever, USL focused more on its premium products — drinks which yield more margins compared to the mass market drinks. Such drinks, which include Johnnie Walker whiskey and Smirnoff vodka, now contribute more than half of the company’s volumes and two-thirds to the top line.
“Since 2014, as part of our transformation journey, we set a clear strategy to grow our brands with a strong focus on premiumisation. Reinforcing this premiumisation trend, last year, the luxury segment grew faster than the premium segment, which in turn has grown faster than prestige,” he told TOI last year. Revenue grew at a CAGR of 23% to Rs 28,589 crore between 2014-15 and 2019-20, while the number of cases produced (of 9l each) came down to 80 million last fiscal from 117 million in 2015. USL’s share price under him remained flat, reflecting the mixed fortunes of the sector in general.