Brands
Siyaram’s lost 25% of business during lockdown, expecting better festive season
NEW DELHI: Siyaram’s is looking forward to exploring marketing activities in the coming festive season, starting October, but with a new approach to the media mix, president Shreedhar Soni told Indiantelevision.com on the occasion of a virtual press meet, organised by the brand to announce its ‘Retail Mahakumbh’ initiative.
He shared, “Siyaram’s core marketing activities, as you would have noticed, are mostly centred around the wedding season and the festive season, starting October, which will commence normally as every year. Sure, we have missed our opportunity with the summer sales this year, but we will be sticking to our plans of making the brand popular going ahead. However, we will have a different approach to use the mediums. Greater focus will be moving towards digital marketing. TV and print part will also resume, as we are expecting the market to develop some normalcy by then.”
It is also planning to expand Siyaram’s online business, which currently stands at just 10 per cent. The upcoming ‘Retail Mahakumbh’ will be focussing, among many other things, on training the retailers to promote and sale their products using the digital medium.
VP marketing N Gangadhar added, “We will also be launching some new products in the coming months. As people get more conscious about what they wear and purchase post-coronavirus, we are planning to launch anti-viral and anti-microbial fabrics.”
The fabric is already ready and awaiting some approvals on its efficiency. It will be launched as soon as it gets clearance and the trade channels start moving again.
Additionally, the senior executive team of Siyaram’s also shed some light on how Covid2019 impacted the sector and their business during the lockdown.
President and ED Gaurav Poddar shared, “We were almost non-functional mid-March onwards. There was virtually no production for the past 2.5 months. We lost almost 25 per cent of our business in these months.”
However, he is positive that things will start getting better soon. “Around 150 of our retails shops have already opened in the green zone areas and they are recording somewhere around two-thirds of the normal sales number already, which I feel is not bad.”
He added while exports will take another quarter to get back to normal, the domestic sector will be quicker to improve as there is a lot of pent-up demand among the consumers.
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Brands
YES Bank hands the keys to SBI veteran Vinay Tonse as it bets on a new era
Former SBI managing director appointed as YES Bank’s new MD and CEO
MUMBAI: YES Bank is done rebuilding. Now it wants to grow. The private sector lender has appointed Vinay Muralidhar Tonse as managing director and chief executive officer-designate, with RBI approval secured and a start date of April 6, 2026 confirmed. The three-year term signals the bank’s intent to shift gears from crisis recovery to full-throttle expansion.
Tonse, 60, is no stranger to scale. Most recently managing director at State Bank of India, he oversaw a retail book of roughly $800bn in deposits and advances, one of the largest in the country. Before that, he ran SBI Mutual Fund from August 2020 to December 2022, a stint that saw assets under management surge from Rs 4.32 lakh crore to Rs 7.32 lakh crore across market cycles. Add stints in Singapore and four years leading SBI’s overseas operations in Osaka, and the incoming chief arrives with a genuinely global CV.
His academic grounding is equally solid: a commerce degree from St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru, and a master’s in commerce from Bangalore University.
The appointment follows an extensive search and evaluation process by the bank’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee. NRC chairperson Nandita Gurjar said the committee unanimously backed Tonse, citing his leadership track record, governance credentials and ability to drive the bank’s next phase of transformation.
Non-executive chairman Rama Subramaniam Gandhi was unequivocal. “I am certain that Vinay Tonse, with his vast experience as a senior banker, will propel YES Bank to its next phase of growth,” Gandhi said, adding that the bank remains focused on strengthening its retail and corporate banking franchises and expanding its branch network.
Rajeev Kannan, non-executive director and senior executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the bank’s largest shareholder, said Tonse’s experience across retail, corporate banking, global markets and asset management positioned him well to lead the lender. SMBC said it looks forward to working with Tonse and the board as YES Bank pursues its ambition of becoming a top-tier private sector lender anchored in strong governance and sustainable growth.
Tonse succeeds Prashant Kumar, who took the helm in March 2020 when YES Bank was in freefall following a severe financial crisis, and spent six years painstakingly stabilising the institution, rebuilding governance and restoring operational scale. Gandhi was generous: “The bank remains indebted to Prashant Kumar, who is responsible for much of what a strong financial powerhouse YES Bank is today.”
Tonse, for his part, struck a purposeful note. “Together with the board and my colleagues, I remain deeply committed to creating long-term value for all our stakeholders,” he said, pledging to build on Kumar’s foundation guided by his personal motto: Make A Difference.
Beyond the balance sheet, Tonse played cricket at college and club level and represented Karnataka in archery at the national championships — sports he credits with teaching him teamwork, situational leadership, discipline and focus. In quieter moments, he reaches for retro Kannada music, classic Hindi songs, and the crooning of Engelbert Humperdinck, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar.
YES Bank has its steady-handed rebuilder in Kumar to thank for survival. Now it has a scale-obsessed growth banker at the wheel. The next chapter starts April 6.
