Britannia Industries has appointed Puneet Das as Chief Marketing Officer, bringing in a seasoned marketer from Tata Consumer Products with over 24 years across Marico, Pepsi, GSK Consumer, and TCPL. His experience with brands like 7Up, Boost, Horlicks, Tata Tea, and Tetley signals renewed marketing ambition at the FMCG major.
Britannia Industries Limited has made a significant leadership move with the appointment of Puneet Das as its new Chief Marketing Officer, bringing on board one of the country’s most seasoned brand builders at a time when the FMCG landscape is being reshaped by shifting consumer behaviour, premiumisation, and fierce category competition.
Das joins Britannia from Tata Consumer Products Limited (TCPL), adding to a career that spans 24 years across some of the most influential consumer brands in India and beyond. His journey has taken him through marketing leadership roles at Marico, Pepsi, GSK Consumer Healthcare, and TCPL, where he worked on iconic names such as 7Up, Boost, Horlicks, Tata Tea, and Tetley. The appointment signals Britannia’s intent to sharpen its brand strategy as it navigates a market that is simultaneously expanding and fragmenting.
Britannia is no stranger to strong marketing legacies. From its heritage biscuits to its expanding dairy, breads, and snacking portfolio, the company has long relied on brand recall and trust as core assets. Yet, the category it dominates is undergoing rapid transformation. New-age brands are nibbling at market share with sharp positioning and digital fluency, while consumers are demanding healthier options, premium experiences, and stronger brand purpose. In such an environment, marketing leadership is no longer just about communication; it is about shaping portfolios, guiding innovation, and building cultural relevance.
Das’s career trajectory suggests he is well suited to this complexity. At Pepsi, he worked on youth-centric, high-energy branding through 7Up, a brand that required agility, cultural instinct, and a deep understanding of mass media impact. At GSK Consumer Healthcare, with brands like Boost and Horlicks, the challenge was different: building trust, credibility, and emotional connection in categories rooted in health and nourishment. These experiences straddle two very different ends of the marketing spectrum—aspirational lifestyle branding and functional, trust-driven brand stewardship.
His more recent stint at Tata Consumer Products brought him into the evolving world of modern Indian FMCG, where legacy tea brands like Tata Tea and global names like Tetley needed to be repositioned for a younger, more experimental consumer. TCPL itself has been undergoing transformation into a broader foods and beverages powerhouse, and Das’s role there involved navigating brand architecture, portfolio strategy, and digital-first consumer engagement.
This breadth of exposure is likely to be invaluable at Britannia, which is increasingly operating across categories that demand both heritage credibility and contemporary agility. The company’s biscuit business, long its backbone, is being complemented by growth in dairy, cakes, rusks, and adjacent snacking formats. Each of these requires distinct storytelling, innovation cadence, and channel strategy.
Industry observers note that the timing of this appointment is particularly interesting. The FMCG sector is seeing heightened competition from direct-to-consumer brands and regional players who understand hyperlocal preferences. At the same time, larger players are investing heavily in premium sub-brands and health-led innovations to capture evolving demand. For Britannia, whose brand equity is deeply rooted in trust and everyday familiarity, the challenge is to stay relevant without losing its core identity.
Das’s track record indicates a marketer comfortable with both evolution and preservation. Working with brands like Horlicks and Boost would have required maintaining long-standing consumer trust while modernising communication for new generations. At Tata Tea and Tetley, the task would have been to reimagine traditional categories for contemporary consumption habits. This balancing act is likely to be central to his mandate at Britannia.
Beyond brand communication, the modern CMO role increasingly intersects with product innovation, consumer insights, and data-led decision-making. Das’s exposure across multiple organisations and categories suggests a deep understanding of how marketing must inform business strategy rather than simply respond to it. Britannia, which continues to invest in innovation and category expansion, will likely look to him to help align marketing narratives with new product pipelines and evolving consumer needs.
His appointment also underscores a broader trend within Indian FMCG: the movement of senior marketing talent across companies as organisations seek fresh perspectives to navigate changing market realities. Leaders like Das bring with them not only experience but also cross-industry learning that can challenge internal conventions and inspire new thinking.
For Britannia, this is a moment of opportunity. The brand enjoys immense goodwill across urban and rural India alike, but maintaining that advantage requires constant reinvention. As consumption patterns shift toward healthier snacking, convenience foods, and premium indulgences, the way Britannia tells its story will matter as much as what it puts on shelves.
Puneet Das steps into the role at a time when marketing is arguably the most strategic function in an FMCG company. His experience across beverages, health foods, and daily staples provides him with a unique vantage point to understand how consumers relate to brands across different moments of the day and stages of life. Translating those insights into compelling narratives for Britannia’s diverse portfolio could define the next phase of the company’s brand journey.
In many ways, this appointment is not just about a new CMO joining a leading FMCG company. It is about Britannia signalling that it intends to compete not only on distribution strength and product innovation, but also on sharper, more culturally attuned brand thinking. With Puneet Das at the helm of marketing, Britannia appears poised to reimagine how one of India’s most familiar brands can feel fresh, relevant, and aspirational for the next generation of consumers.
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