Mohit Kampani to take charge as Spencer’s CEO

Vineet Kapila, CEO at Spencer’s Retail is said to have

put in his papers and will be replaced by Mohit Kampani, the current head of merchandising and operations. The retail arm of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group has hired two global retail hands -- Venkat Narayanan, former director of merchandising at Office Depot in the US, and Kingshuk Basu, a former executive at Kroger & Daymon Worldwide - ahead of a possible stake sale to a strategic foreign partner or a public listing.

After the government allowed global supermarket operators to own upto 51 per cent stake in local multi-brand retailing, the group had indicated its interest towards stake sale to foreign entity and current developments within the group are seen as measures towards attracting the same. Spencer’s Retail operates 153 hypermarts and neighbourhood stores across the country. Under Kapila, Spencer’s initiated major restructuring of its business that included the closure and relocation of almost 100 unviable stores in the last four years. Meanwhile, K Dasaratharaman, who was heading the specialty retail formats of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group that includes music retail chain Music Word and US-based cafe and bakery chain Au Bon Pain, has quit the company. Dasaratharaman will be replaced by Sanjay Gupta. Vishal Mehrotra has been promoted as the general manager for marketing at Spencer`s Retail.

In the first six months of this fiscal, Spencer’s has clocked a turnover of Rs 714 crores against Rs 536 crores in the year-ago period. The company has set a target to breakeven by December 2013.