Wadhawan Food Retail Ltd (WFRL), which operates Spinach and Sabka Bazaar outlets, has planned to restructure its management by introducing an individual CEO for each format of its retailing operations. Besides to oversee the entire retailing operations, the company has also planned to appoint an MD.
Under the new structure, which was decided about two weeks ago, Pushpamitra Das, the interim CEO of Spinach stores will move back to his earlier role of CFO of Wadhawan Retail.
In his place, the company has appointed Robert Thomson as the CEO for the West and the East, primarily to handle Spinach stores. Salil Sahoo will be handling Northern region, comprising Sabka Bazaar stores and Home Stores. Bhaskar Rao will be heading the southern market, while Ravi Rao will oversee Sangam Direct. Sangam Direct is the home delivery model that Wadhawan Retail had acquired from HUL last year.
Four CEOs at the national level will have a team that will execute operations at the regional level. They will report to the managing director at the centre. “As we have rolled out various formats, the need to beef up teams and create a centralised structure was important. It will put functional expertise at the national level and be reinforced by regional teams which will execute and scale up operations,” Gaurav Modwel, director, WFRL, said in a statement.
Besides, WFRL is also undertaking a format and brand perception study to evaluate whether its various retail formats should be unified under a single brand name or whether brands can co-exist as different models within a single geography.
“If it’s felt that Spinach and Sabka Bazaar are close as far as the brand attributes and value proposition, they may be unified. If there are differences, then both formats can co-exist in one region as two different models. Formats like Sabka Bazaar and Spinach are convenient stores, but over the time their profiles have changed. We need to evaluate what parameters they match and where are the differences,” informed Modwel.
