Ananth Narayanan to continue as Myntra-Jabong CEO

Narayanan said while there would be some redundancies as a result of integration of the back-end functions of Myntra and Jabong, it will, however, be less than 10 per cent of the overall headcount

Quashing speculations around his exit, Myntra-Jabong CEO Ananth Narayanan on Friday said he will continue to lead the two fashion portals that are in the midst of integrating their back-end functions, which will impact less than 10 per cent of the jobs at the entities.

Days after Binny Bansal -- the CEO at Flipkart Group that owns Myntra and Jabong -- announced his exit, the two fashion platforms were brought under Flipkart, with Narayanan now reporting to Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy.

This had fuelled speculations that Narayanan was looking to quit due to the new reporting structure.

Clearing the air over recent reports, Narayanan told PTI: "I continue to be here and I continue to lead the business."

Narayanan had joined Myntra as the chief executive in 2015, succeeding Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal.

Sources, however, said CFO Dipanjan Basu has put in his papers.

There have also been speculations that there could be more exits in the wake of the recent upheaval at Flipkart following the surprise exit of co-founder Binny Bansal.

Narayanan asserted that while there would be "some redundancies" as a result of the integration of the back-end functions of Myntra and Jabong like technology, marketing, finance and creative, but "it's less than 10 per cent of the overall Myntra and Jabong headcount".

Narayanan, however, declined to quantify the number of people impacted as a result of the integration process or the total headcount.

"The integration process is still on. Our employees are valuable but...reason we are doing it is eventually, this is the best business process to have in the market and serve the customers," he said, adding that both Myntra and Jabong will continue to operate as separate consumer-facing brands.

Detailing the ongoing integration of back-end functions, Narayanan said the process began last year and the job losses are across various functions.

He added that the sacked employees are being given 3-8 months' salaries, assistance in placements and extension of medical insurance.

Earlier in the week, Bansal had stepped down following a probe into allegations of "serious personal misconduct".

The independent investigation against Bansal gave a clean chit to him as the probe "did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant's assertions" against him.

Bansal had also refuted the allegations and had stressed that he would continue to hold his shares and board seat.

Flipkart's parent Walmart -- which had acquired 77 per cent in the e-commerce major for a whopping $16 billion in May -- said it had accepted Bansal's resignation as the probe "did reveal other lapses in judgement, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation".

Binny's exit after that of co-founder Sachin Bansal (not related) had raised questions around leadership and the course of action over the next few months for the company that is locked in an intense battle with American rival Amazon.

Walmart has stated that Kalyan Krishnamurthy, currently chief executive of the Flipkart division and PhonePe (Flipkart's payments arm) CEO Sameer Nigam will report directly to the board.

Also, Flipkart's operations will now include fashion portals Myntra and Jabong even though they would continue to operate as separate platforms.

Ananth Narayanan will continue as CEO of Myntra and Jabong and will report to Krishnamurthy, it had said.

Asked if all three -- Flipkart Fashion, Myntra and Jabong -- could potentially cut into each other's market, Narayanan replied in the negative.

"I disagree with the fact that we don't need different brands to win in a large market like India. I think there are very distinct consumer propositions that Myntra and Jabong have operated with, catering to mass premium. Flipkart Fashion is driving the overall fashion adoption in the industry," he explained.

He said overlap in customers, if any, is acceptable as the brands are trying to expand the market that is in nascent stages but growing exponentially.

Photograph: Kind courtesy, Myntra.com