Verma’s resignation came in effect from June 30. Although no reasons are given for the move, Grover has been undergoing management restructuring, with Zampa merging with it and also inducting Singapore-based Ravi Viswanathan and later Reliance Capital buying a minority stake. The merger that should have been complete by now is still undergoing the process of completion, according to the reliable sources.
At the time of merger announcement, Verma was tipped to become the CEO of Grover Zampa. But perhaps, due to the changed philosophy of the merged entity this was not feasible. In the meanwhile, the management indecision, especially in rearranging the marketing set up, after exit of the erstwhile shareholder and distributor Brindco, has resulted in the sales of Grover products go south, especially in North India.
Neeraj was an ex-Hindustan Unilever senior manager with the Food Solutions division of the consumer major and had over 20 years of marketing and management experience of food and beverages, though not wine, when he joined Grover in January 2010. At that time Kapil Grover, the owner Director of Grover Vineyards had informed delWine, ‘Moving forward, we realized that we need a full-time CEO and we were looking for someone with a strong marketing and management background and Neeraj fitted well with our requirements.’
During Verma’s leadership, the company secured ISO 22000 certification which is valid for a 3- year block at a time- till December 2013 subject to regular inspection. However the sales of the company have been going down from a record high of 83,000 cases to close to 50,000 cases in 2011-12 making it fall down to the third place in terms of market share in the premium domestic wine market. Four Seasons, with a turnover of over 65,000 cases overtook it, moving behind Sula which is laps ahead of the pack. |