Jain's elevation as India head of Reckitt comes on the back of his stellar performance in the health vertical. Now, with hygiene under his belt as well, he will be eyeing an encore
Gaurav Jain is Senior Vice President, South Asia for Reckitt
Last July, Reckitt’s fiscal report card had an extra layer of zing. Dettol soap, the British consumer goods multinational proudly announced along with its half yearly results, had become India’s biggest soap brand by value. In spite of the pandemic tailwind, it was no mean achievement for a brand that has been in the country since 1936. Dettol was finally flexing its might.
Seven months later, in February this year, Dettol and India had something more to boast about. India, along with the US and China, was among Reckitt’s largest contributors to growth in 2020. “The growth has been broad-based geographically. In particular, strong double digits in the US and India,†Laxman Narasimhan, chief executive officer of Reckitt Benckiser Group, said in an earnings call.
India, reckon industry watchers, is now a key market for Reckitt, and Gaurav Jain’s elevation as India head early this week should be seen in this context. Currently, Jain is the senior vice president for South Asia.
In 2017, Jain who is a BITS-Pilani and IIM-Calcutta graduate, and is a foodie who loves a game of cricket, was appointed chief of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia (AMESA), including India, for the health unit following the restructuring of Reckitt’s division into two units of health and hygiene. Since then, he has been instrumental in aggressively expanding the reach of brands such as Dettol, Veet, Durex and Strepsils in India. The results have been phenomenal. Reckitt claims that, in 2020, Dettol toppled Lifebuoy to become the biggest soap brand by value. And Durex’s value market share more than doubled from 2.8 percent in 2018 to 7.5 percent by March 2020, according to analysts quoting Nielsen data.