Sanjay Purohit to join Samara Capital as Partner

Samara Capital announced that Sanjay Purohit, currently Managing Director, Levi Strauss India Pvt. Ltd., will be joining them as Partner - Consumer / Retail practice. Sanjay’s career spans 28+ years across strong consumer / retail companies, like Levi Strauss & Co., Cadbury India Limited, Mobil Gas and Asian Paints, where he has built and grown great brands and businesses. In his role at Levi Strauss India Pvt. Ltd., where he has been the Managing Director for the past 6 years, Sanjay has played a key role in transforming the business, driving both growth and profitability, while building a strong organizational culture and team.

“We are delighted to have Sanjay come on board and join Samara Capital. We believe that Sanjay is one of those rare business leaders who is able to combine deep consumer understanding and strong strategic orientation with execution bias, focus on cash flows and team building to create valuable businesses. With Sanjay’s addition to our leadership team, Samara’s consumer / retail capability will move to the next level,” says Sumeet Narang, Founder and Managing Director, Samara Capital. “He shares the Samara vision and belief that value-added private equity capital can transform and grow businesses rapidly while creating significant stakeholder value.”

“I am very excited to join Samara Capital, which has been one of the most active consumer / retail investors in India, with investee companies including Flemingo Duty Free, Monte Carlo Fashions, Guardian GNC, Paradise Foods and Sapphire Foods (KFC / Pizza Hut). Samara Capital believes in unleashing the power of human capital and entrepreneurship, to create superior stakeholder value, and this has been the principal factor in my decision to join their team. As an immediate task, I will assume responsibilities as CEO of Sapphire Foods and Board member on Paradise Foods and will work with the respective teams to grow these powerful brands profitably so as to take advantage of the immense opportunity in the food services space,” says Sanjay Purohit.

Samara Capital is an entrepreneurially run, India focused private equity firm. Samara invests in emerging Indian companies (EICs), businesses that have the potential for rapid growth and transformation, when run by an entrepreneurial minded management team backed by sound processes and systems. Samara values the importance of building trust in all their business relationships and emphases medium to long term value creation, nimbleness, agility while running the businesses they invest in.