Bengaluru: Flipkart has appointed former Unilever Plc executive Hemant Badri as senior vice-president, supply chain, as Walmart Inc.’s Indian unit readies itself for an initial share sale to take advantage of booming online sales that has boosted valuations.
Badri, who joined the Bengaluru-based e-commerce firm on 1 March will head the Ekart-Myntra Supply Chain as well as the Jeeves-F1 priorities at Flipkart, group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said in an email to employees on Monday.
Ekart is Flipkart’s in-house supply chain arm while Jeeves is the after-sales service and installation business.
At Unilever, Badri was global vice-president of planning, analytics and customer experience, and vice-president of planning for European operations at the global firm’s headquarters in Netherlands. He was also part of Unilever’s global supply chain leadership team.
“…Hemant brings a wealth of expertise in varied domains such as strategies, operations, manufacturing, customer service, logistics, demand planning, sales and operations planning, network optimization and cost transformation," Krishnamurthy said in his email, a copy of which Mint has reviewed.
Amitesh Jha, who was leading the Ekart-Myntra Supply Chain and Jeeves-F1 operations has been assigned a new role in category design operations (CDO) and marketing, merchandising and monetization (M3) organization, where he will oversee the consumables, customers and marketing charters.
All asset leaders reporting to Jha would now report to Badri.
Ranjith Boyanapalli, senior vice-president, fintech and payments group will take on additional responsibilities of customer experience (CX), Marketplace and the Central Liquidation Team (CLT).
“Under his (Ranjith) leadership, we have launched and scaled products like co-branded credit card and buy now, pay later, as we continue to focus on affordability and new-age fintech products," Krishnamurthy said.
In December, the e-commerce firm had made several changes to its board, including naming group chief executive officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy as a director.
Keki Mistry, vice-chairman and chief executive of mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd (HDFC); Walmart’s chief technology officer Suresh Kumar; and Leigh Hopkins, executive vice-president of strategy and development for Walmart International, also joined Flipkart’s board.
Last year, Flipkart’s digital payments unit PhonePe was also separated from the parent as part of steps to take Flipkart public.
Walmart acquired a majority stake in Flipkart for $16 billion in 2018, valuing the Indian company at $21 billion. At the time, Walmart CEO Doug McMillion said he wants to take Flipkart public in as early as four years after the closing of the acquisition.
Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart has hired Goldman Sachs to explore an initial share sale of Flipkart in the US to raise around $10 billion by selling around 25% in India’s largest online retailer, Mint reported in December.
In July 2020, Walmart led a $1.2 billion investment in Flipkart Group, valuing the company at around $25 billion, in its largest fund-raising since its acquisition in 2018.
Walmart now owns an 82.3% stake in Flipkart, with US-based hedge fund Tiger Management, China’s Tencent, Accel Partners and Microsoft Corp., among the other key investors.
Click here to read the Mint ePaperMint is now on Telegram. Join Mint channel in your Telegram and stay updated with the latest business news.