MAM
Pidilite’s Vivek Sharma joins as marketing advisor for Fixcraft
Mumbai: Fixcraft appointed Vivek Sharma as marketing advisor to accelerate the company’s growth through marketing excellence and brand building.
Sharma has been a part of the industry for 32 years. He brings on board a unique experience of business and brand development across FMCG, healthcare, lighting, consumer durables and home improvement, encompassing B2C, B2B and B2G.
For seven years, Sharma served as a chief marketing officer at Pidilite. During his long stint with Pidilite, he was responsible for marketing planning, implementation and brand development for all divisions, corporate brand, innovation and marketing talent development across the organisation.
He was also the vice president Indian sub-continent at Philips India Ltd. He held many senior positions across various organisations such as Cadbury (now Mondelez), Ogilvy advertising and MIRC electronics (ONIDA).
According to a media report, Sharma said, “Fixcraft is looking at a huge untapped opportunity for quality and reliable car repair and service that exists between authorized workshops and neighbourhood garages. I see here a vacant space to build a trusted brand that takes full accountability for its service and creates consumer delight. The journey in building the business and brand Fixcraft with the young team is surely going to be exciting.”
Sharma regularly teaches and delivers marketing lectures at premier B schools like IIMs, ISB and SPJIMR. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore and Bachelor of Technology from Indian School of Mines (now IIT, Dhanbad).
“We at Fixcraft are building a reliable brand which is accountable for the service delivery to consumers by owning the end-to-end execution of repair in company owned service centers. With Vivek joining hands with us as a marketing advisor, we are sure that we will be able to take this promise to all consumers PAN India in a very effective manner and our brand position will help us service more and more consumers who are looking for a trustworthy service provider,” Vivek Sharma, Founder and CEO Fixcraft said in the media report.
Brands
Flipkart completes reverse flip to India ahead of IPO
Walmart-owned e-commerce giant shifts domicile from Singapore to Bengaluru
MUMBAI: Flipkart has completed its restructuring to move its parent company from Singapore back to India, marking a key milestone as the Walmart-owned marketplace prepares for a potential initial public offering on Indian stock exchanges, ET reported, citing people aware of the matter.
The move, often referred to as a “reverse flip”, relocates the company’s legal home to India and aligns its corporate structure more closely with its largest market. It also clears an important regulatory step for Flipkart as it explores listing plans.
As part of the restructuring, several Singapore-based entities have been merged into Flipkart Internet Private Limited, which will now serve as the main holding company for the entire group.
The consolidation brings a number of major businesses directly under the Indian parent company. These include fashion platform Myntra, logistics arm Ekart, travel booking platform Cleartrip, healthcare marketplace Flipkart Health, and fintech venture Super.money.
Under the new structure, global investors including Walmart, Microsoft, SoftBank, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will hold their stakes directly in the Indian entity rather than through an overseas holding company.
The redomiciliation required approval from the Indian government because Chinese technology company Tencent owns around a 5 to 6 per cent stake in Flipkart. Under Press Note 3, investments from countries sharing a land border with India require prior government clearance.
Flipkart had already secured approval from the National Company Law Tribunal in December. With the latest clearance from the central government, the company has now obtained all the regulatory approvals needed to complete the relocation, ET reported earlier.
Flipkart had originally shifted its holding structure to Singapore in 2011 to tap global capital more easily. However, as India’s capital markets have matured, several start-ups have begun returning their domiciles to the country ahead of public listings. Companies such as Razorpay, Groww, and Meesho have taken similar steps.
The company is now expected to move ahead with its IPO preparations and has begun early discussions with merchant bankers. According to people familiar with the matter, Flipkart could file its draft prospectus later this year, setting the stage for what may become one of the most closely watched listings in India’s e-commerce sector.
Flipkart has been majority-owned by Walmart since 2018, when the US retail giant acquired a 77 per cent stake in the company for $16 billion in one of the largest e-commerce deals globally.
