Sandeep Kataria joins Bata India as Country Manager

Bata India, the European footwear major’s Indian subsidiary, has announced the appointment of Sandeep Kataria as the Country Manager for India. Kataria joins from his last assignment as Chief Commercial Officer at Vodafone India, and he will be based in Gurgaon.

A business leader, Kataria has over two decades in the consumer industry, covering design and deployment of business strategy, brand management and sales and marketing leadership across the developing and developed markets. Having held roles ranging from Regional Sales Manager to Global Brand Director in Unilever and from Chief Marketing Officer to Chief Executive Officer in Yum! Brands, Kataria now has his role cut out – to grow Bata India from strength to strength.

He will be reporting to Rajeev Gopalakrishnan, who has been elevated as President of Asia South, based in Singapore, with a broader perimeter encompassing: India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. This development is in line with Bata India’s growth trajectory, which picked up significant momentum under Gopalakrishnan. He has indeed been pivotal in driving the product, brand, retail and manufacturing levers of the business. A clear reflection of the past few years’ trajectory has been Bata’s share price almost tripling in the last six years from a value of INR 196 per share in April 2011 to INR 584 per share as on date and wining several awards including the most admired retail footwear brand in India by Brand Equity, Images Retail, Dun & Bradstreet.

Gopalakrishnan, President, Asia South, Bata, said “I am confident that Sandeep will play a critical role in continuing to build Bata as a contemporary and stylish brand, keeping in mind the changing consumer trend in India and will drive the company to achieve the accelerated growth plan.”

On his new role, Kataria, Country Manager, Bata India, said," I am very excited for the opportunity to lead Bata in India – a very strong, trusted and admired brand with immense potential to grow rapidly. My association with Bata goes back to my teenage days when I used to spend my summer vacations in my grandfather's shoe business in Agra. I look forward to helping to take the business to greater heights across many channels, consumer segments and geographies."

Kataria holds a Bachelor of Technology degree (Chemical Engineering) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur. He has lived and worked in India (Delhi and Mumbai) and UK (London).

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