The Taste Of Success

Parle Agro Managing Director And CMO Nadia Chauhan Has Taken To The Family Business With Passion And An Ambitious Plan To Win Market Leadership.

- Oliver Featherston

For the Indian beverage industry, the mid-1980s saw two significant events – two births, in a sense – that would eventually have a big impact on the industry. One was the creation of Parle Agro, formed out of the break-up of long-lived food and beverage company Parle Products. It was also around that time Parle Agro’s future Managing Director and CMO, Nadia Chauhan, was born.

As the daughter of Prakash Chauhan, Parle Agro’s Chair, Nadia was destined to share in the company’s legacy. From a young age, she was exposed to the organisation’s operations and, inevitably, took an official position with Parle Agro in 2003. “When I joined the company, what I was truly driven by was my father’s outlook and vision,” she recalls. “But at the same time, I was touched in a completely different way by the company’s past, because we had a powerful history behind us.”

Though Parle Agro itself only goes back to 1984, the company’s story began in 1929 with Nadia’s great-grandfather Mohanlal Chauhan, who created the Parle Group. Initially, the company produced a broad collection of candies and biscuits, until it split into two non-competing businesses: Beverages (Bisleri and Parle Agro); and Confectionary and Snacks (Parle Products). Each one remains owned by various members of the Chauhan family, though each has now gone its own way.

Even in its own three decades of business, Parle Agro has a strong legacy. It has introduced some of the biggest, best, and longest-lasting drink brands in India. For example, Thums Up, the market leader for cola drinks in India, was introduced by Prakash Chauhan and his brother. Eventually, the brand was purchased by Coca-Cola in 1993 but the fact that Thums Up’s market share was 85 per cent at the time of sale is a testament to Parle’s brand innovation and management.