Britannia Industries named N Venkataraman deputy managing director and appointed Ramamurthy Jayaraman as CFO, with both changes effective October 1, according to Reuters and Business Standard. Business Standard says its account draws on a company stock-exchange filing. Venkataraman moves up from the finance chief role he held at the Indian packaged-food company; Jayaraman takes over that portfolio from his current post in corporate finance.
A broader brief for Venkataraman
The changes are related, but they are not a simple one-for-one replacement. Venkataraman will cease serving as CFO and remain a whole-time director and key managerial personnel. Business Standard, citing Britannia’s stock-exchange filing, reports that he will take responsibility for finance, strategy, legal, secretarial and IT functions, working with CEO and managing director Rakshit Hargave on the company’s transformation agenda.
That expanded remit gives the appointment a clear operating dimension. Finance stays within Venkataraman’s portfolio even as the CFO title passes to Jayaraman, while strategy and several corporate functions are explicitly grouped under his new role. Reuters says Venkataraman joined Britannia in April 2007; Business Standard also identifies his promotion from CFO to deputy managing director.
Jayaraman’s appointment is the other half of the handoff. He has been vice president of corporate finance and will head Britannia’s entire finance function as CFO. The company’s filing, as reported by Business Standard, lists financial planning and analysis, taxation, treasury, shared services and business commercial among those responsibilities. Reuters reports that Jayaraman has spent 15 years at Britannia.
There is no external hire here and no announced departure from the company. Instead, two long-serving executives divide the work differently from October 1: Venkataraman takes a broader deputy managing director role, and Jayaraman steps into the CFO seat. The timing gives staff and partners a defined date for the handoff, while the public description makes the reporting scope unusually legible.
The move belongs to a wider set of leadership changes among food businesses, including Saputo’s appointment of Steve Douglas to lead its ingredients business. Each company has chosen a different way to connect finance leadership with operating priorities; Britannia has set out that connection through the responsibilities attached to Venkataraman’s new role.
