Brands
91Brands names Sumit S Suneja director for growth & partnerships
MUMBAI: Consumer brands platform 91Brands has appointed retail and expansion specialist Sumit S Suneja as founding member and director for growth and partnerships, marking a key early leadership move for the company.
Announcing the development, Suneja said he was excited to begin a new chapter with 91Brands, signalling his return to an entrepreneurial, build-from-the-ground-up role after a long corporate stint. His mandate will focus on accelerating growth, forging strategic partnerships and shaping the company’s market expansion roadmap.
Suneja brings over two decades of experience across retail, franchising, real estate and international markets. Most recently, he spent more than 16 years at Bestseller India, where he served as chief expansion officer and head of international markets, overseeing large-scale retail growth and cross-border expansion. Earlier in his career, he led the launch and scale-up of Cocoberry, India’s first premium non-fat frozen yoghurt brand, and founded Siters Retail Solutions, advising brands on retail, real estate and franchise strategy.
With deep expertise in building brands, negotiating complex deals and scaling businesses across geographies, Suneja’s appointment adds seasoned heft to 91Brands’ founding team as it sets out to build its next phase of growth.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
