Bengaluru/ Mumbai: Shares of Britannia Industries Ltd, a 13-decade-old company and India’s leading biscuit maker, declined as much as 6.7% on Tuesday, a day after chief executive officer Varun Berry resigned abruptly.

The stock fell to the day’s low of ₹5,721.70 on the BSE. The shares have advanced over 8.76% this year.

Berry’s resignation came barely a week after Britannia said 5 November it had appointed Rakshit Hargave as its new CEO starting 15 December. Hargave resigned as chief executive officer (CEO) of Birla Opus the same day.

The board of directors accepted Berry’s resignation and waived his notice period. It said he was relieved from his position as vice-chairman, managing director and CEO. Executive director and CFO N. Venkataraman would hold additional charge as CEO until Hargave joined.

“The stock reacted negatively because of the resignation of Mr Varun Berry… we were expecting it to happen maybe next year, after Mr Hargave got settled in his role,” said Vishal Punmiya, consumer sector analyst at Yes Securities. “Investors had expected him (Berry) to stay on and help Mr Hargave settle in, at least during the transition. That didn’t happen, so the market is viewing it as a short-term negative. But once the new leadership stabilizes strategy and operations, things should settle down.”

Ajay Thakur, lead FMCG analyst at Anand Rathi Institutional Equities, said the lack of overlap between the outgoing and incoming leadership could weigh on sentiment.

“If you look at it, in a month’s time frame, there’s no clear leadership at Britannia. That obviously has some implications for the company’s performance,” he said.

Britannia did not immediately respond to Mint’s queries seeking comment on why Berry’s notice period was waived. Berry did not respond to Mint’s requests for comments sent last night.

Berry’s leadership

According to a Motilal Oswal analyst note dated 10 November, the exit was a “big guard change,” calling Britannia “one of India’s best turnaround stories” under Berry’s leadership.

Berry took charge as CEO of Britannia, a company then viewed as a commodity player with weak operating margins, in 2013, when he was 52 years old and had completed a two-decade-long stint at PepsiCo. Under Berry, Britannia’s profit margins almost tripled, with operating margins rising from 7% in FY13 to 18% in FY25 and net margins improving from 4% to 12%.

The company transformed into a high-performing FMCG business built on five strategic planks—distribution, marketing, innovation, cost efficiencies, and developing adjacent categories. Berry expanded Britannia’s rural reach—expanding its rural distributor base from 7,000 in FY15 to 31,000 in FY25—while direct retail reach more than doubled to 2.9 million outlets.

Under Berry, Britannia expanded beyond its flagship biscuit portfolio—Good Day, Marie Gold and Bourbon—to new snacking categories such as croissants, rusks, dairy, salty snacks and wafers, turning a biscuit-led company into a diversified foods business.

He pushed cost optimization through a ‘zero-day’ inventory model and reduced third-party dependencies, saving nearly 2% of sales annually, while investing in R&D, manufacturing capacity and new product categories such as croissants, rusks, dairy, salty snacks and wafers.

Analysts were positive about Hargave, who was the first chief executive of Birla Opus, which entered the decorative paints market in 2024. Under Hargave’s leadership, Birla Opus shook up a market long dominated by Asian Paints, Berger Paints and Kansai Nerolac. Berger Paints CEO and managing director Abhijit Roy admitted that the new entrant had disrupted a previously “stable market” and got everyone “running.”

“He should be seen as a performer with solid credentials,” Thakur of Anand Rathi said of Hargave. “He’s joining at a very right, conducive time. Input costs have bottomed out and the next two quarters look better for Britannia. That gives him space to lay the groundwork for future growth.”

“We’ll have to see how his strategies and execution for Britannia play out,” he added, “but he certainly seems to have a very decent track record.”