Brands
Knya appoints Chintan Adeshara as Head of Retail
Lifestyle and medical apparel brand eyes 100+ stores in three years as it ramps up offline push
MUMBAI: Knya is doubling down on bricks and mortar. The lifestyle and medical apparel brand has appointed Chintan Adeshara as head of retail, tasking the retail veteran with scaling the brand’s physical footprint across India as it accelerates its offline expansion.
Adeshara joins with a clear brief: help take Knya to more than 100 stores over the next three years and steer the next phase of the company’s retail growth.
The brand has already opened more than 20 stores and plans to add two new outlets every month this year, signalling an aggressive offline strategy and a push to build a strong national retail presence.
Adeshara brings more than 19 years of experience in large-scale retail operations. Over the years he has handled multi-state business management, store operations and region-led expansion, managing annual business portfolios exceeding Rs 320 crore and leading teams of more than 1,300 employees across functions and hierarchies, while keeping a firm grip on profitability and execution.
He has previously worked with fast-growing retail brands such as Zudio and Lenskart, where he played a key role in building and scaling operations from the ground up. His experience spans expansion planning, process standardisation, shrinkage control initiatives and driving sustained double-digit growth across regions.
Abhijeet Kaji, co-founder of Knya, said, “As we continue to scale our retail presence across India, it is important for us to strengthen our leadership bench. Chintan’s extensive experience in managing complex retail operations and building scalable growth models aligns well with Knya’s vision. We are confident that his leadership will add significant value to our expansion journey.”
Adeshara said the timing of the move made the opportunity particularly compelling. “I am excited to join Knya at a pivotal stage of its growth journey. My vision is closely aligned with the brand’s ambition to build India’s most structured and scalable medical apparel retail network. I look forward to driving disciplined expansion, strengthening store-level profitability, standardising retail operations, and building high-performing teams that can support Knya’s goal of scaling to 100+ stores over the next three years.”
The hire underscores Knya’s push to strengthen its leadership bench as it expands its physical presence nationwide. With stores opening at a brisk clip and the 100-store milestone firmly in sight, the brand’s retail ambitions are now moving from plan to full-throttle execution.
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.
