ITC board promotes Sumant Bhargavan as additional, wholetime director

The board of ITC Ltd on Thursday promoted its president of FMCG business, Sumant Bhargavan as an additional director and wholetime director, subject to approval from the shareholders.

Bhargavan will continue to hold office till the company’s next annual general meeting (AGM).

Sumant, 54, an alumnus of NIT Durgapur, joined ITC in January 1986 and spent first 19 years in manufacturing operations of ITC’s tobacco division and worked in four production units as well as at the head office in the capacity of the general manager of operations. In October 2004, he moved to the foods business and established the snacks food category under the brand name Bingo. 

Bhargavan also led ITC Infotech, a wholly-owned subsidiary, as its managing director from April 2009 to October 2014. He has also been on the boards of ITC Infotech's subsidiaries in the UK and the USA. 

Prior to becoming a director on ITC Ltd’s board, Sumant Bhargavan had been leading the firm’s FMCG business as its president since April 2016. Prior to the role as president, he was the divisional chief executive of the tobacco division.

Sumant is also a member of the corporate management committee of the company and has handled the additional responsibility of trade marketing and distribution as its chief executive since October 2016 for a year.

He has been instrumental in ITC coming up with 30 new product launches recently across the FMCG portfolio including foods and personal care and the company completing an acquisition of Charmis and Nimyle brands. 

The EBITDA for the non-cigarette FMCG business had stood at Rs 1.59 billion, registering a 77 per cent growth on the back of enhanced scale, product mix enrichment and cost management initiatives. This is despite sustained investment in brand building, gestation costs of new categories including juices, dairy, chocolates and others.