Not Global CEO, Dabur anymore, but a friend for life: Mohit Malhotra signs off

Mohit Malhotra has signed off from Dabur after a 32-year association with the FMCG major, marking the end of a career that saw him rise from a management trainee in 1994 to its global CEO. In a farewell note addressed to business partners, industry peers, government officials and the media, Malhotra reflected on his journey, acknowledging the relationships and partnerships that contributed to the company's growth across domestic and international markets.

During his association with Dabur, the India business grew from Rs 250 crore to over Rs 10,000 crore, while its international business expanded from scratch to over Rs 2,500 crore across more than 100 markets. Malhotra also highlighted the company's brand-building initiatives, overseas acquisitions, joint ventures and manufacturing expansion across eight countries outside India. He is now moving to Dubai to begin a new chapter.

Here is his full message:

On 14 November, I sign off from Dabur after 32 wonderful years. Before I do, I wanted to write to the people who made this journey nothing short of ‘Special’: our distributors and channel partners, our vendors and suppliers, our agencies, fellow CEOs and business leaders, government officials and regulators, industry bodies, the investor community and the media. To each of you, a simple and heartfelt thank you.

I joined Dabur as a young Management Trainee in 1994. The years since took me across India, the UK and the EU, the US and Canada, the Middle East and GCC, Turkey, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh and beyond, and back home to lead Dabur globally. Together, we built the India business from just Rs 250 crores to over Rs 10,000 crores and international business from scratch to over Rs 2,500 crore across 100-plus markets.

Along the way, we built brands that became leaders in their categories, and in some markets created categories that simply did not exist before. Dabur Amla became the world's number one hair oil brand, and Vatika grew into a market leader across hair oils, hair creams, hair gels and hair masks in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt, at a time when many said people outside South Asia did not oil their hair. At home, Dabur Chyawanprash, Dabur Honey, Red toothpaste, and Real led their categories too.

We built partnerships and joint ventures, including Asian Consumer Care with ACI in Bangladesh and our soap manufacturing partnership with CAP Plc in Nigeria. We made Dabur's first overseas acquisitions: Hobi Kozmetik in Turkey and Namasté Laboratories in the US, which also bought businesses in Nigeria and South Africa, followed by CTL's personal care business in South Africa. And we built a manufacturing footprint that today spans eight countries outside India: the UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Turkey, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. We came through the Arab Spring and COVID stronger each time, and none of it would have happened without you.

To our distributor partners: some of my happiest memories are of our distributor meetings in India and also Majlis, the distributor gatherings we started in Egypt that grew into an institution and took us to Sharm El Sheikh, Tbilisi in Georgia, Cyprus, Dubai and many other memorable locations over the years. What began as a simple way to bring partners together became a family. Equally special were the incentive trips with our partners and my colleagues to destinations around the world: the celebrations after a great year, the long dinners, the stories and the friendships that began far from any office. You believed in Dabur when we were still small, and that trust built the business.

To everyone I met on my market visits: the retailers, stockists and field teams in bazaars, souks, malls and village haats across continents. Every one of those visits taught me more about consumers than any research report ever could. Thank you for your time, your candour and, very often, your tea.

To our vendors, suppliers and agencies: you were the quiet engine behind every launch, every campaign and every factory that kept running when the world stopped. Thank you for going the extra mile, often at very short notice.

To the government officials, regulators and industry bodies in India and every market we operated in: thank you for your guidance, your openness to dialogue and your partnership in building an environment where business can grow responsibly.

To my fellow CEOs, and to the many forums that gave me a platform to speak, from industry conferences to business summits: thank you for the conversations, the debates and the ideas I carried back to the office every time. I have learnt as much from my peers as from any classroom.

To the academic world: my heartfelt thanks to FMS Delhi, to my alma mater IIFT, and to the many institutes that invited me to deliver lectures, join seminars and spend time with students. Every classroom left me with more questions than answers, which is exactly as it should be.

To the Ayurvedic fraternity, its institutions, practitioners and the owners of Ayurvedic companies: thank you for welcoming me as one of your own, and for the honours you so generously bestowed on me. It has been a privilege to work alongside you to popularise and contemporise Ayurveda for a new generation, in India and around the world.

I have also been deeply humbled by the recognition that came along the way. My special thanks for the honorary Doctorate in Ayurveda from Rajasthan, conferred on me by the Hon'ble Governor of Rajasthan, an honour I will always cherish. I am equally grateful for being named in Forbes Middle East's list of leading Indian executives in the Arab world four years in a row from 2014, the International Achievement Award from CEO Middle East, the NRI Professional of the Year award, the Alumnus of the Year honour from IIFT and, this year, an IAA Leadership Award. Each of these belongs as much to the people I worked with, and to all of you, as to me.

I am now moving to Dubai to begin a new chapter. I have the same butterflies in my stomach that I had on my first day in 1994, and I take that as a good sign: there is always a new learning curve.

My Dabur email will stop working shortly, so please update my contact details below. I would truly love to stay in touch, and if you are ever in Dubai or Delhi, the coffee is on me.