Brands
Kwality Wall’s scoops up heavyweight board ahead of HUL split
MUMBAI: India’s soon-to-be-independent ice cream giant has lined up seven directors to steer its course after breaking free from Hindustan Unilever Ltd on 1 December. Kwality Wall’s (India) Ltd announced the heavyweight appointments on 23 November signalling its readiness to compete as a standalone entity in the country’s fast-growing frozen desserts market.
The newly minted board brings together veterans from across consumer goods, finance and strategy. Ritesh Tiwari, global head of M&A, treasury and ventures at Unilever plc, joins as non-executive director. The 25-year industry stalwart previously served as executive director of finance and chief financial officer at HUL, where he championed digital transformation.
Two executive directors will drive day-to-day operations. Chitrank Goel, tapped as deputy managing director, brings over two decades in consumer packaged goods and 15 years specifically in ice cream, including stints at Unilever India and Europe before moving to Jubilant FoodWorks. Prashant Premrajka steps in as chief financial officer and executive director, armed with 22 years in consumer goods and previous experience as CFO of Kimberly-Clark Lever India.
The independent directors pack serious corporate firepower. Ravi Pisharody spent over a decade at Tata Motors, including as executive director, plus 18 years at Philips and eight at BP/Castrol. Madhavan Hariharan, group CFO at CK Birla Group, chairs the audit committee at Galaxy Surfactants. JV Raman logged nearly three decades at Unilever across multiple markets, heading businesses in Vietnam and Russia. Shukla Wassan brings three decades of expertise in strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance across South Asia.
The board appointments follow the resignation of Toloy Tanridagli, who stepped down as additional non-executive director on November 21st citing professional commitments. The company also hired Vidhi Sanghvi as company secretary and compliance officer, effective December 5th, and appointed SN Ananthasubramanian & Co as secretarial auditors.
The demerger marks a strategic bet on focused value creation. Armed with marquee brands including Magnum and Cornetto, and backed by an expansive distribution network, Kwality Wall’s is positioning itself to accelerate growth in a category that’s heating up. The company will list on India’s two major stock exchanges in due course. For a business built on keeping things frozen, the pace is decidedly scorching.
Brands
Godrej clarifies ‘GI’ identifier after logo similarity debate
Says GI is not a logo, will not replace Godrej signature across products.
MUMBAI: In a branding storm where shapes did the talking, Godrej is now spelling things out. Godrej Industries Group (GIG) has issued a clarification on its newly introduced ‘GI’ identifier, addressing questions around its purpose and design following a wave of online criticism. At the centre of the debate were two concerns: whether the new mark replaces the long-standing Godrej logo, and whether its geometric design mirrors other corporate identities.
The company has drawn a clear line. The Godrej signature logo, it said, remains unchanged and continues to be the sole logo across all consumer-facing products and services. The ‘GI’ mark, by contrast, is not a logo but a corporate group identifier intended for use alongside the Godrej signature or company name, and aimed at stakeholders such as investors, media and talent rather than consumers.
The need for such a distinction stems from the 2024 restructuring of the broader Godrej Group into two separate business entities. With both continuing to operate under the same Godrej name and signature, the identifier is positioned as a way to differentiate the Godrej Industries Group at a corporate level.
The rollout, however, triggered a broader conversation on design originality. Critics pointed to similarities between the GI mark’s geometric composition and logos used by companies globally, raising questions about distinctiveness.
Responding to this, GIG said its intellectual property and legal review found that such overlaps are common in minimalist, geometry-led design systems. Basic forms such as circles and rectangles appear across dozens of brand identities worldwide, the company noted.
It added that the identifier emerged from an extensive design process and was chosen for its simplicity, allowing it to sit alongside the Godrej signature without competing visually. While acknowledging that elemental shapes may appear less distinctive in isolation, the group emphasised that the mark is part of a broader identity system that includes a custom typeface, sonic branding and other proprietary elements.
Following legal and ethical assessments, the company said it found no impediment to using the identifier, reiterating that the GI mark is a corporate tool not a consumer-facing symbol.
In short, the logo isn’t changing but the conversation around it certainly has.
