Harish Bhat to be new CEO and MD of Tata Global Bev

Harish Bhat, former chief operating officer (COO) of Titan Industries Ltd, has been appointed as chief executive officer and managing director of Tata Global Beverages (TGB). He takes over from incumbent Percy Siganporia, who is due to retire on June 30.

Also joining the TGB board as director is Tata Sons vice-chairman Cyrus Mistry. Darius Pandole, partner at private equity firm New Silk Route, joins the board as independent director.

A Tata Administrative Services (TAS) officer, Bhat’s current appointment will be his second stint at the beverage maker. He was last associated with the company between 1988 and 2000, when he held various positions. Subsequently, Bhat moved to Titan Industries as COO of the jewellery division. He was then assigned the role of president-marketing, Tata Teleservices, in 2004, moving back to Titan Industries as head of the watches division in 2006. He continued as COO of the watches division till mid-January this year, following which he took a sabbatical to write a book.

Having stepped back into the thick of corporate action, Bhat will have a number of things to do--chiefly driving both organic and inorganic growth at a time when markets across the globe as well as in India are slowing down. The Rs 6,631-crore TGB derives 65 per cent of its revenues from international markets and 35 per cent from the domestic market.

In India, TGB has done well emerging as both value and volume market leader in packaged tea with shares of 21.3 per cent and 19.6 per cent, respectively. Both Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and TGB have been fighting a stiff battle in tea for some time now. While the latter gained volume leadership about three years ago, it trailed behind HUL in value leadership. In the last 10 months, however, TGB has moved ahead of HUL in value terms as well.