MAM
Varun Berry steps down as CEO of Britannia Industries
MUMBAI: After more than a decade at the helm, Varun Berry, the driving force behind Britannia Industries’ modern growth story, has stepped down as chief executive officer, with Natarajan Venkataraman taking over interim charge.
Berry’s tenure, which began in January 2013, transformed Britannia from a legacy bakery business into one of India’s most agile and profitable FMCG players. From expanding the company’s dairy portfolio to sharpening its rural reach and premium biscuit lines, Berry was instrumental in making Britannia a household name with global ambitions.
Before joining Britannia, Berry had spent nearly 15 years with PepsiCo, where he held multiple senior roles including CEO of PepsiCo Foods India and chief executive officer of International Dairy & Juice – a joint venture between PepsiCo and Almarai in Dubai. He also led operations across the Philippines and Vietnam, and began his career at Unilever’s Brooke Bond India in the late 1980s.
Under Berry’s leadership, Britannia’s revenues rose steadily, with the company expanding into new categories, healthier snacking options, and sustainability initiatives, while maintaining its biscuit dominance through brands like Good Day, Marie Gold, and Bourbon.
Natarajan Venkataraman, who will assume interim leadership, is expected to ensure business continuity as the board identifies a long-term successor.
For a man who turned tea-time snacks into serious business, Berry’s exit marks the end of a golden chapter – one baked with consistency, innovation, and plenty of good days.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
