Westlife Foodworld Ltd, owner and operator of McDonald’s restaurants in West and South India, has elevated Saurabh Kalra as the Managing Director (MD) on Monday. He will take over from Smita Jatia, who was the company’s MD since 2010.
Kalra was earlier serving as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the organisation.
In this new role, he will focus on the overall business strategy and growth opportunities, driving the company’s long-term success while continuing to remain deeply involved in day-to-day operations.
Amit Jatia, Vice Chairman, Westlife Foodworld said, “We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Saurabh on his well-deserved promotion. It gives me great pride to see that, in keeping with our people philosophy, we have been able to develop careers and appoint someone internally for this critical role.”
Over the years, Kalra has straddled roles across operations, training, real estate, strategy, and development functions, gradually and successfully transitioning from a restaurant-facing role to a CXO role. “Smita would continue to be an active member of the Westlife board. We are confident that these moves will further strengthen McDonald’s India (W&S) as the most loved and preferred QSR chain in the country,” the company added.