Bata Indian Md Resigns Over Losses

A day after Bata India Ltd (BIL) declared losses in the second half of the current fiscal, C Morzaria resigned as the managing director. He was replaced by the joint managing director, F Garcia. C Morzaria will, however continue on the board as a non-executive director. Naresh Kumar, a director of the company, has also resigned from the board.

Garcia joined Bata as joint managing director on August 24. He looked after marketing at BIL's parent organisation, Bata Ltd in Toronto. He was transferred to India to take charge of the day to day activities here.

This is the second round of top-level changes in the management this year. The last round of reshuffling was done on August 24 when the deputy managing director, G V Middleton, was transferred to Singapore where Bata Shoe Organisation has an outfit. He took charge of the Singapore office towards the end of September 2001. P K Nag on secondment to Bata Ltd, Toronto for the past two years was appointed finance director of Bata India. Vice-president, retail (south) G S M Ghaznavi was appointed director-retail.

The company has recently taken up a revamp exercise which entails closing down unremunerative outlets, and expanding into demand-rich areas.