Happy, No Dent

After battling macroeconomic headwinds for three years, Italian confectionery major Perfetti Van Melle hits a high-growth trajectory in India

- Rajiv Singh

It was sometime in October 2017. The change of season in Delhi—winter was about to set in—coincided with winds of change blowing strongly across the India operations of Italian confectionery major Perfetti Van Melle. Over 200 staff, gathered at a hurriedly-called town hall in a five-star hotel in south Delhi, had a whiff of what was coming. The buzzword was transformation. While the employees were on the edge, the top management had its task cut out.

Perfetti, the maker of Happydent, Center fruit and Center fresh chewing gum brands, had seen muted growth over the last three years, with sales crawling from fiscal 2015; in 2017 they stood at ₹1,700 crore, just ₹10 crore more than the number in 2015. This was in stark contrast to the double digit growth rates Perfetti was accustomed to since its India debut in 1994. However, a deadly cocktail of demonetisation, tepid rural demand, a slowing economy and rising commodity prices was taking a toll. The company needed a reboot.

The immediate task for Rajesh Ramakrishnan, who was shifted from Bangladesh to India as chief transformation officer in August 2017, was to ease the nerves. “It was a growth-oriented strategy, not a cost-cutting one,” recounts Ramakrishnan, who was elevated as India managing director (MD) last July.