Flipkart hires Unilever’s Vikas Gupta to head marketing

NEW DELHI: Walmart-owned e-commerce company Flipkart has roped in consumer goods giant Unilever’s general manager Vikas Guptaas the head of its marketing function.

Flipkart, which competes fiercely with rival Amazon and dominates online retail sales along with Amazon, was acquired by the world’s biggest retailer Walmart Inc for more than $16 billion in May last year, valuing it at $22 billion.

Flipkart confirmed the move to ET. 

“Vikas is joining us after a long, successful stint in Uniliver where he has worked in multiple countries and in various functions. He is relocating from Indonesia,” Flipkart Group chief corporate affairs officer Rajneesh Kumar said in an email revert. 

Gupta will report to Anil Goteti, senior VP at Flipkart.

Gupta, general manager at the home care division and VP for digital transformation at Unilever Indonesia, had been associated with the company for over 20 years. He was leading Unilever’s home care division, served on the company’s board, and also led the digital marketing transformation effort at the company.

Gupta’s is yet another example of Indian managers making their mark in global markets and taking up larger roles within India in the consumer-tech space.

“The ideal marketer of the future would combine rich traditional brand marketing expertise with the learnings of new-age performance marketing and direct-to-consumer platforms,” said Sonal Bahl, partner at executive search firm Positive Moves Consulting.

An alumnus of IIM Lucknow, Gupta joined Unilever as sales and customer development manager in 1999. 

According to his profile on professional networking site LinkedIn, Gupta has led the home care business at Unilever Indonesia (with a turnover of 3.5 billion euros and Unilever’s fourth largest company), and took back global market leadership from rival Procter & Gamble during his five-year tenure. He led the end-to-end business for the $1 billion home care division at Unilever Indonesia.

Gupta has worked across general management, P&L leadership roles, global marketing and sales and distribution, the LinkedIn profile showed.

“Gupta, who brings with him marketing proficiency from an iconic consumer company like Unilever, will now put his prowess to work at one of the world’s biggest consumer technology success stories at Flipkart,” Bahl added.