In a surprise move, Peter Unsworth, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Rs 5,982-crore Tata Global Beverages (TGB), has resigned.
The company made this announcement to exchanges just before it declared its full-year results for 2010-11. It said Unsworth had resigned for personal reasons. The resignation would be effective from June 30.
Investors were quick to react to the news and brought down the TGB stock by 5.27 per cent to Rs 91.50 from Rs 96.60 in the afternoon. The stock closed at Rs 92.05, down 3.71 per cent.
This is the second high-profile departure from TGB after Sangeeta Talwar, regional president, South Asia, resigned in July last year.
Formerly the Tetley group CEO, Unsworth took over as CEO of TGB (formerly Tata Tea Ltd) in a strategic reorganisation in June 2009. The reorganisation saw Unsworth head an executive team, based in London, which included Deputy CEO Percy Siganporia, Chief Financial Officer L Krishna Kumar, Chief Marketing Officer John Nicholas and Chief Human Resources and Communications Officer Nalin Miglani.
TGB’s business was divided into six regions, each led by a regional president.
The aim of the reorganisation was to diversify into value-added products away from the core tea segment.
TGB’s 2009-10 annual report (the 2010-11 report is yet to be released) says tea accounts for 67 per cent of turnover. This is down from over 90 per cent five years ago.
Unsworth had said in an earlier interaction with Business Standard that the plan was to continue to build the non-tea portfolio.
“The focus for us will be on good-for-you beverages,” he said.
During his tenure, TGB entered into a 50:50 joint venture with PepsiCo India to form NourishCo Beverages to market products on the good-for-you platform. TGB recently signed an agreement with Kerala Ayurveda to form a venture to launch beverages and food products based on ayurvedic recipes.
The company was open to acquisitions to boost its business in areas such as foods, Unsworth had said. “We do not have any capability or assets in foods. Whatever we have is in beverages. So, the route with foods will have to be via acquisitions,” he said.
TGB has not announced a replacement for Unsworth. Deputy CEO Siganporia will take charge for now.
The company reported a 35 per cent decline in consolidated net profit for the year ended March 31 to Rs 254.33 crore as against Rs 390.30 crore last year. This was on the back of an increase in input and advertising costs.
