Turnaround Lady

Nadia Chauhan has ensured that her beverage brands are available in every nook and corner of India.

- Ajita Shashidhar

NADIA CHAUHAN, Joint Managing Director of Parle Agro, has been her father Prakash’s biggest critic since her childhood. Prakash created the iconic beverages Thums Up, Gold Spot and Limca, first sought her feedback whenever they were experimenting with a new product. Therefore, joining her father’s business was a natural choice. “I not only used to spend my vacations at my father’s office learning how to type from his secretary but also attended brand meetings and went for market visits,” she remembers.

When she joined the group in 2003, she was in charge of marketing and innovations. But the one thing that constantly bothered her was that the company was not growing according to its potential. “In spite of having a huge sales force, we were stuck at distributing to four lakh outlets.”