MAM
Price cuts, higher ad spend fail to buoy Colgate’s sales
MUMBAI: The price of Colgate-Palmolive Co’s shares plummeted on Friday after the company reported lower-than-expected quarterly sales despite spending more on advertising and cutting prices.
The world’s largest toothpaste maker said gross margins fell to 59.8 percent in the fourth quarter from 60.4 percent a year earlier, hit by higher costs for raw materials and packaging according to a Reuters report.
Colgate said it expects sales growth in 2018 but the forecast did nothing to shake the impression of stagnation that has dogged Colgate and other consumer goods producers in the past year.
Organic sales improved sequentially, but the rate of improvement was less than expected, the company said in a post-earnings conference call.
For 2018, Colgate forecast mid-single digit percentage net sales growth and low- to mid-single-digit organic sales growth, and double-digit earnings per share growth.
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UltraTech Cement appoints Jayant Dua as managing director
Dua will succeed K. C. Jhanwar after his term ends in December 2026
MUMBAI: UltraTech Cement, the flagship cement arm of the Aditya Birla Group, has elevated Jayant Dua as managing director, effective 1 April, 2026.
The company’s board also approved his appointment as additional director, managing director and key managerial personnel, effective 1 January, 2027, following the completion of the current managing director K C Jhanwar’s term on 31 December, 2026, according to a regulatory filing.
Dua will serve as managing director for a four-year term from 1 January, 2027 to 31 December, 2030.
A veteran executive with more than 37 years of professional experience, Dua joined the Aditya Birla Group’s cement business in 1996 and spent nearly a decade in various functional and leadership roles.
Over the past two decades, he has held several profit-and-loss and chief executive responsibilities across multiple group businesses, including insulators, insurance, Century Cement and the chlor-alkali segment. In 2023, he was elevated to lead the group’s renewables and textiles businesses.
Within the group, Dua has received several internal honours, including the chairman’s individual award for exceptional contribution in 2002, the outstanding leader award in 2009 and the leader of leaders recognition in 2022.
He holds an engineering degree from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, an MBA from International Management Institute and has completed the advanced management programme at Harvard Business School.
