Storage battery major Exide Industries has been realigning its business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) with a focus on strengthening and consolidating the go to market strategy.

“We have recently undertaken an organisation realignment with a focus on strengthening and consolidating the go to market strategy in both B2C and B2B markets. This resulted in some top leadership hiring who are being onboarded now, some announcements that we have already made, and more we will make shortly. This high quality leadership talent will drive the growth agenda in the next year (FY26),” MD & CEO Avik Roy said during the second quarter earnings conference call on Monday.

Exide Industries last week announced the appointment of Pravin Saraf as Senior President and Head of Operations of the company. As a senior management personnel, Saraf will be part of the top leadership team at the Kolkata-based company. In his most recent role, he served as Head of Operations, SCM Planning, and Logistics at Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals.

Replying to analysts’ queries, Roy pointed out that the leadership hiring move is a part of the company’s growth agenda to strengthen its business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B).

“We are realigning the B2C and the B2B businesses of the company together in two parts. And therefore there are leadership hirings. We have hired the best talents to drive agenda to both B2C group and the B2C group. And there will be an international group, which is exports. So, this is how we reorganised. This will give us a lot of power in go to market,” Roy said.

“This is to make sure that there is a clear strategy so that the size of the wallet of the network does not get melted. So, this is a comprehensive strategy,” he stated.

Exide Industries reported a 13.66 per cent year-on-year decline in its consolidated net profit to ₹233.40 crore for the second quarter this fiscal from ₹270.32 crore for the same period last fiscal. The company’s revenue from operations, however, grew 17.95 per cent y-o-y at ₹4,450 crore compared to ₹4,371.52 crore for the corresponding period of FY24.

“The businesses that declined during the first half of the year are expected to rebound in the second half of the year (FY25),” the MD said.

Asked about the proposed 12-gigawatt lithium-ion cell manufacturing plant in Bengaluru, Asish Kumar Mukherjee, Director - Finance & Chief Financial Officer said, in the first phase of the project, investment was expected to be around ₹5,000 crore. “We are quite confident in managing this investment. The large portion of that will come as equity infusion, the balance we have to take some bridge loan because we cannot match the outflow immediately. In due course of time we are quite confident in repaying the bridge loan in future,” Mukherjee added.

The green-field plant is scheduled to start production from middle of 2025.

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