Becoming a director of India's largest unlisted kitchen appliance company, Neha Gandhi perhaps always knew that she would take over the company from her father, Rajendra Gandhi, Founder and Managing Director of Stovekraft, which has flagship brands of Gilma and Pigeon.
She had joined the company's board in 2016, and is now the Executive Director at Stovekraft. Gandhi, 27, completed her Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and a post-graduate certificate programme in Sales and Marketing Management from MICA (formerly Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad). After a brief stint as a graduate trainee at Viacom 18 Media, she joined her company's marketing division before being elevated to a board position. Stovekraft has over 660 products and over 2,000 employees. Over a 1,000 employees are on its factory floors (Bangalore and Baddi, Himachal Pradesh), and most of these are women.
In a world of changing consumer behaviour, her mission is to modernise Stovekraft and make it relevant for today's customer. With the company expected to hit the IPO market this year, it is looking to not only reduce its debt significantly (by Rs 110 crore) but also invest in new plants and bring in a higher degree of automation, specifically for manufacture of new classes of products. Another new area of focus is lighting solutions.