Koshy George has been appointed as the chief marketing officer by Marico Limited. In his new role, George will be responsible for leading the brand marketing initiatives of the company. He will report to Saugata Gupta who is the managing director and CEO and will be a part of Marico’s Executive Committee.
Koshy is an alumnus of IMT, Ghaziabad and has worked in sales and has over 17 years’ worth of marketing experience across diverse categories such as personal care, home care, and foods. For him, the move means coming full circle to where he started out. George started his career as Management Trainee with Marico India in 2001 and was an Area Sales Manager by the time he moved to Hindustan Unilever in 2004. Before returning to Marico, his last position was that of Global Marketing Director – Skin Cleansing. During his tenure with Unilever, Koshy worked on various projects concerning the building and transforming of various brands and categories.
With George’s significant experience in leading a brand to go global, it is expected that Marico might task him with looking at its global marketing portfolio too. Marico has made its mark in 25 countries across emerging markets of Asia and Africa, with marquee brands in the categories of hair care, skin care, edible oils, health foods, male grooming, and fabric care.
Marico has been focussing on its foreign markets (Bangladesh, Vietnam, the Middle East, and North Africa and South Africa) also ramping up expansion into these markets. “The company is aiming for 8-10 percent volume growth over the medium term (3 to 5 years), coupled with healthy market share gains,” Marico CFO Vivek Karve told Moneycontrol.
The company saw a 22% revenue from its international businesses as of March 2018. Its annual revenue for the year ended March 2018 stood at ₹6,417.7 crores.
George will play a crucial role in Marico’s next phase of growth as it has set a target of 10 percent growth in business volume over the next three years. The company plans to strengthen its presence in the foreign markets and will be making strategic investments to expand their base overseas to boost the overall revenue of the firm.
Koshy’s appointment came after the resignation of Anuradha Aggarwal as the company’s CMO last year in October. Saugata Gupta was entrusted with the additional responsibilities of managing the company’s marketing initiatives until a new CMO was appointed.
“Koshy brings in a good mix of deep understanding of consumers and markets in categories similar to ours. He has a very exciting and challenging agenda in driving premiumization of our portfolio over the next few years,” Gupta said.
