Brands
Mother Dairy focuses on east; eyes Rs 7,000 crore biz by FY16
KOLKATA: Mother Dairy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board, which launched its dairy whitener, under the ‘Dailycious’ brand in Kolkata, is expecting volumes to go up and cross the Rs 100 crore mark following the new launch. At present, the company reports about Rs 30 crore business annually from its dairy business in the east.
Additionally, the company is looking at an overall organisational business of nearly Rs 7,000 crore by the end of this financial year (2015-16), up from Rs 6,300 crore reported last year. The company is expecting a growth rate of around 11 per cent in the current fiscal.
“At Mother Dairy, it has been our constant endeavour to offer exceptional value to consumers, and this has been the core of our products. Carrying on the same ethos, the dairy whitener is being launched under the Dailycious brand. It will be made available through a wide network of distribution channels of nearly 10,000 outlets, including retail and model retail formats across the region,” said Mother Dairy business head (dairy products) Subhashis Basu.
The company plans to penetrate in the eastern and north-eastern states through the category by offering the product at lower price points compared to other existing players. It has chosen the eastern states to launch the product as this zone is milk-deficient and consumes it in big scale, he hinted.
The company has lined up similar rollout plans for other cities and important markets across the country. The dairy whitener market is pegged at Rs 2,000 crore with east and the north east markets accounting for 50 per cent of the total, he said.
Initially, besides West Bengal, Dailycious would be launched in the North East, Bihar, Odhisha and Kerala, he said. “Whitener products will be manufactured from our new plant at Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, where we have made an investment in excess of Rs 150 crore,” Basu added.
The eastern states contribute to 45 per cent of the total market, said Basu. According to him, the company is eyeing a five per cent market share by this fiscal. The products will be available from 14 April.
Basu also informed that dairy products like fresh milk, ice cream, butter milk and lassi among others, contributes to about 80 per cent of the company’s total revenue.
Brands
Lululemon picks former Nike executive to be its next chief
Heidi O’Neill, who helped grow Nike into a $45 billion giant, will take the top job in September
CANADA: Lululemon has found its next chief executive, and she comes with serious credentials. The athleisure giant named Heidi O’Neill as its new CEO on Wednesday, ending a search that has left the company running on interim leadership since earlier this year. O’Neill will take charge on September 8, 2026, based out of Vancouver, and will join the board on the same day.
O’Neill brings more than three decades of experience across performance apparel, footwear and sport. The bulk of that time was spent at Nike, where she was a central figure in one of corporate sport’s great growth stories, helping take the company from a $9 billion business to a $45 billion global powerhouse. She oversaw product pipelines, brand strategy and consumer connections, and played a significant role in shaping how Nike spoke to athletes around the world. Earlier in her career, she worked in marketing for the Dockers brand at Levi Strauss. She also brings boardroom experience from Spotify Technology, Hyatt Hotels and Lithia and Driveway.
The board was unequivocal in its enthusiasm. “We selected Heidi because of the breadth of her experience, her demonstrated success delivering breakthrough ideas and initiatives at scale, and her ability to be a knowledgeable change and growth agent,” said Marti Morfitt, executive chair of Lululemon’s board.
O’Neill, for her part, was bullish. “Lululemon is an iconic brand with something rare: genuine guest love, a product ethos rooted in innovation, and a global platform still in the early stages of its potential,” she said. “My job will be to accelerate product breakthroughs, deepen the brand’s cultural relevance, and unlock growth in markets around the world.”
Until she arrives, Meghan Frank and André Maestrini will continue as interim co-CEOs, before returning to their previous senior leadership roles once O’Neill steps in.
Lululemon is betting that a Nike veteran who helped build one of the world’s most powerful sports brands can do something similar for an athleisure label that has genuine love from its customers but is still chasing its full global potential. O’Neill has done it before at scale. The question now is whether she can do it again.
