The board of Eveready Industry has appointed Suvamoy Saha as the managing director of Eveready Industries India Ltd for a three-year term with the concurrence of the Burman family, which is the largest shareholder in the country’s largest dry cell maker that it intends to control.

The Burmans have a 19.84 per cent stake in Eveready and have already announced an open offer to acquire another 26 per cent.

Saha’s appointment follows the resignation of Amritanshu Khaitan as the MD of the company. Uncle Aditya Khaitan has also stepped down from his position as non-executive chairman.

The Khaitans, who have a mere 4.84 per cent, have been forced to quit after the Dabur group made its sudden move to establish themselves as the promoter of the battery maker.

Saha was a whole time director of Eveready between 2005 to 2019 before stepping down. He was brought back thereafter as a non-executive board member before being elevated as the joint managing director from August 10 last year amidst repeated calls from the Burmans to professionalise the management.

On Tuesday, Mohit Burman, vice-chairman of Dabur, termed the three-year appointment of Saha as ‘very positive’. He also confirmed to The Telegraph that the decision was taken in consultation with the Burman family and they had concurred with his appointment.

In his first reaction to this newspaper after the announcement, Saha said he was ‘thrilled’ to get the opportunity to lead the company, which is now ‘100 per cent professionally managed’.

“Eveready is one the few companies in India which grossly under utilises its core strengths, the brand and the distribution network. My immediate focus will be to leverage them to the extent possible,” Saha said.

He picked the lighting category as the next growth driver for Eveready even as batteries and flashlights remain the core of the company. Saha argued that there would also be scope to rationalise cost in an old company like Eveready further. “It would be a focus driven company, without any distractions,” he said.

Eveready has engaged Bain & Co to chart the next phase of growth. It is expected to come up with its report in the next three to six months.

Saha added that the management bandwidth is being expanded with induction in the sales and human resource departments.

The reshuffle at Eveready comes at a time the price of zinc, the core raw material for the battery, has started to surge along with many other metals in the wake of Russia-Ukraine conflict. The company has had to bear the burden of the surge.

Open offer

The Burman open offer for Eveready shares is likely to open on April 26 and close on May 10, the company has informed the bourses. The last date for upward revision of the offer size and price has been set as April 22. The Eveready stock closed at Rs 335.65 on Tuesday, 4.6 per cent higher than the offer price of Rs 320 a share.

The stock had fallen from the high of Rs 370 after the open offer was announced on February 28.