In a joint statement the promoters of GEAR, Kabir Kewalramani, Managing Director – Berggruen Holdings and Dimitri Goulandris, Founder – The Cycladic Group announced the appointment

GEAR (Gemini Equipment and Rentals Private Limited), India’s leading Warehousing & Intralogistics Material Handling Equipment (MHE) rental service provider has appointed Varun Chopra as Executive Chairman to accelerate growth. In a joint statement the promoters of GEAR, Mr. Kabir Kewalramani (Managing Director – Berggruen Holdings) and Mr. Dimitri Goulandris (Founder – The Cycladic Group) announced the appointment.

Kabir said “In this role, Varun will set the strategic direction & will be responsible for the overall business and P&L of GEAR India.” Dimitri added “Varun brings with him over 20 years of global experience in Strategic & Operational P&L delivery across Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Healthcare and FMCG businesses and has lived & worked in India, USA, China & UAE. An energetic & agile business leader with a passion for developing talent, he possesses deep P&L expertise, has transformed, turned around & accelerated businesses with consistent revenue & profit growth and developed new GTM (Go To Market) models to enter into new markets.”

In his last assignment, Varun was leading Sun Pharma’s OTC (Over The Counter) Consumer Healthcare business in Emerging Markets for 5 years where he successfully integrated the Ranbaxy OTC acquisition, built high performance multi-cultural teams, collaborated with diverse stakeholders across countries & functions & aligned the organisation in developing & executing a "GloCal" strategy by market which was instrumental in scaling up Sun Pharma’s OTC Emerging Markets business to over Rs.1000 crores - growing ahead of market, with industry leading margins & additionally developed a strong innovation pipeline of new products to generate incremental revenue & profit.

Commenting on joining GEAR Varun said “It is a privilege to take on the position of Executive Chairman at GEAR and build on the good work done by the team which has made GEAR the #1 rental solutions provider in India. While there are challenges due to Covid-19, there is an opportunity to stimulate growth in the MHE (Material Handling Equipment) rental space by deepening our existing relationships and partnering with new customers in E-commerce, Auto, FMCG, Pharmaceuticals, Glass and other industrial goods. I look forward to meeting & engaging with customers, both existing & potential, so as to provide more effective & efficient solutions to them and in leading the GEAR team to accelerated revenue & profit growth and I am thankful to our promoters, Berggruen Holdings and The Cycladic Group, for giving me this opportunity and for their support.”

Kabir & Dimitri signed off by saying “We have every confidence that Varun will help take the GEAR business to the next level both from a strategic & operational P&L standpoint by evolving the organisational strategy and driving strong execution ably supported by a high performance team and continue to ensure market leadership for GEAR in India”.