Combined chief executives’ salaries of India’s top 10 fast-moving consumer goods companies crossed ₹100 crore in FY21, overtaking pre-Covid levels, as the pandemic-hit last year saw the companies overcome large-scale disruptions.
India chairman Suresh Narayanan became the highest paid leader within the FMCG industry, overtaking chairman Sanjiv Mehta in the last fiscal, as packaged foods became a top draw.
According to Nestle’s annual report for 2020, Narayanan’s overall salary increased 6.3% over the previous year to ₹17.19 crore. Nestle follows a January to December accounting year.
Compensation packages of other company leaders, including ITC’s Sanjiv Puri, Marico’s Saugata Gupta, Britannia’s Varun Berry and Dabur’s Mohit Malhotra too went up.
The maximum increase in compensation packages, which include fixed and variable components and stock options, were handed over to chief executives of Tata Consumer, Dabur and ITC in the year. Tata Consumer Products managing director Sunil D’Souza, for example, was paid ₹10.49 crore, in comparison to ₹4.3 crore paid to Ajoy Misra who headed the company before.
In contrast, the country’s biggest packaged consumer goods company HUL chairman Sanjiv Mehta’s annual salary saw reduction by 21%. The Covid-hit 2020 led to companies rework supply chains, replenishment cycles and inventory management, and maximise production in factories amid massive reverse labour migration.
“The last couple of years have seen steady increase in compensation for consumer-facing companies, since executives from the industry are top draw for consumer-tech, food-tech and direct-to-consumer companies,” said K Sudarshan, managing director of executive search firm EMA Partners.
