Taking pride in being one of the biggest Indian conglomerates: Godrej

"We promise Godrejites a culture of tough love; take serious bets on them and differentiate basis performance.”

Established in 1897, the Godrej Group has its roots in India’s Independence and Swadeshi movement. Its founder, Ardeshir Godrej, lawyer-turned-serial entrepreneur failed with a few ventures, before he struck gold with a locks business. Today, the company enjoys the patronage of 1.1 billion consumers globally across consumer goods, real estate, appliances, agriculture and many other businesses. In fact, its geographical footprint extends beyond Earth, with its engines now powering many of India’s space missions.

With a revenue of over USD 4.1 billion, it is growing fast, and have exciting, ambitious aspirations. Its Vision for 2020 is to be 10 times the size it was in 2010. But for them, it is most important that besides its strong financial performance and innovative, much-loved products, it remains a good company. 24% of the holding company is held in a trust that invests in the environment, health and education. It is also bringing together the passion and purpose to make a difference through its Good & Green strategy of ‘shared value’ to create a more inclusive and greener India. At the heart of all of this, is its people. It takes much pride in fostering an inspiring workplace, with an agile and high performance culture. It is also deeply committed to recognizing and valuing diversity across the teams.

The umbrella branding

Appliances: Godrej Appliances began in 1958, when it made the first ever refrigerator in India. This was followed by several innovations including launching PUF (polyurethane foam) in the ‘80s. Today, Godrej Appliances has added future-ready air conditioners, state-of-the-art washing machines and the latest cooking technologies amongst other products to its vast portfolio. It also became the first and only company in India to manufacture 100% CFC- HCFC- and HFC- free refrigerators and simultaneously launched several other green initiatives.

Food and Grocery: The offerings in the food & grocery space include Nature’s Basket and Godrej Tyson Foods. Godrej Nature’s Basket is a retail venture of the Godrej Group and is today India’s foremost retail destination for fine foods from across the world. Started in 2005 as a single fresh food store, it is today an omni-channel gourmet retail chain with 33 premium stores across Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad and a growing online presence. The Godrej-Tyson partnership produces poultry products under the Real Good Chicken range, and ready-to-fry vegetarian and non-vegetarian Yummiez snacks.

Locks: For Godrej, in 1897, the key to unlocking destiny was locks. Since then, Godrej Locking Solutions & Systems has set several benchmarks in the locks industry-from the first spring-less lock in 1907 and the iconic ‘NavTal’ in 1954 to the Ultra range in 1995 and the revolutionary 3KS in 2007. Godrej Locking Solutions & Systems, a unit of Godrej & Boyce, is the epitome of trust and reliability. It adheres to global quality norms and hold ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications.

Home and Personal care: The Godrej Consumer Products portfolio of brands includes many household favorites. It is constantly innovating and looking for new and exciting ways to delight the consumers. Today, the company is among the largest household insecticide and hair care players in emerging markets. In household insecticides, it is the leader in India (Good Knight and Hit), the second largest player in Indonesia (Hit) and is now expanding its footprint in Africa.

Security: Godrej is synonymous with trust and reliability, two qualities indispensable to the industry. At Godrej Security Solutions, it offers a range of security solutions for home users, including home safes, video door phones, CCTV cameras, home alarm systems and car safes. Its products are tested stringently at leading testing laboratories, i.e., SP Test in Sweden, VDS Test in Germany and the Underwriters Laboratory in the United States. Its plant in Mumbai is rated as one of the finest and largest factories in India. The customer trust is legendary. In 1905, when Queen of Victoria visited India, she chose a Godrej safe to keep her valuables.

Meet the Key Leader

In 2012, Pirojsha took over as CEO of Godrej Properties. He has led the company through a phase of rapid growth through which the company has established itself as one of India’s leading and fastest growing real estate developers. Under Pirojsha’s leadership, Godrej Properties has been at the forefront of the sustainable development movement; in 2013, GPL was recognized with an award from former President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam, on behalf of the Confederation of Indian Industry for being one of the companies in India from across sectors to have driven the green building movement. The Clinton Foundation has partnered with Godrej Properties for its large township project, Godrej Garden City, which works with the Clinton Climate Initiative towards the goal of creating a Climate Positive Development.

Pirojsha graduated from the Wharton School of Business in 2002 and completed his Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University in 2004. He went on to complete an MBA from Columbia Business School in 2008 before rejoining GPL as Executive Director. In 2010, Pirojsha led the initial public offering of the company through which Godrej Properties raised US$ 100 million. In 2015, Mr. Pirojsha Godrej was selected as ‘Visionary of India – Young Achiever Extraordinaire’ at the Brand Vision India 2020 Summit & Awards supported by FICCI and received the ‘CEO – REAL ESTATE’ award at the CEO AWARD 2015.

“You think of Godrej as such an integral part of India that you may be surprised to know that over 25 per cent of our business is done overseas.”