Avenue Supermarts CEO: Neville Noronha quits Avenue Supermarts, Unilever’s Anshul Asawa to be new CEO

After serving Avenue Supermarts for over two decades, one of India’s richest CEOs Neville Noronha has decided to not renew his candidature at the parent company of DMart chain of retail stores. His term in the company ends in January 2026, a year from now, after which Unilever’s Anshul Asawa will fill in his shoes.

“After more than two decades of exceptional leadership and a glorious tenure at the helm of the business, Neville has chosen not to extend his contract. The Board of Directors honours his decision and expresses profound gratitude for his extraordinary contribution to the company,” Avenue Supermarts announced in a statement today.

The company’s board has appointed Anshul Asawa as the CEO Designate, effective March 15th, 2025.

Also Read: DMart Q3 Results: Standalone profit up 6.5% to Rs 785 crore, revenue jumps 17.5%

Noronha, who owned around 1.95% stake in the company at the end of the September quarter, is one of India’s richest CEOs as his stake in the company owned by Radhakishan Damani is worth about Rs 4,700 crore.

He had joined DMart in January 2004 and shepherded the company from its early years to its current position as one of the largest supermarket chains of the country.”A hallmark of Neville’s leadership is his conviction that while business strategy is evolved out of a complex metrics of ideas and competing claims, competent execution requires that it is articulated in simple and precise terms, ensuring they are easy to understand and everyone across all levels in the company is able to understand and execute it,” the company said.Under his stewardship, DMart has reached significant milestones, including surpassing the Rs 50,000 crore annual turnover mark and growing from 5 stores, when Noronha joined the company, to more than 380 stores now.

“I would like to place on record my appreciation of Neville’s vision and hard work in building the company to this scale today. He has demonstrated exceptional leadership skills and dedication in his remarkably successful tenure. A leader who saw the big picture but never lost the eye for detail, Neville made sure that growth and profits were not ends in themselves, rather they were the by products of efficiency, fairness and customer value,” Avenue Supermarts Chairman CB Bhave said.

While noting that Dmart is a business model that has a multidecadal runway for growth, Noronha said if we stay the course of simplicity, efficient costs, happy employees, deep value to customers and most importantly not doing anything else, we will always remain relevant for a long time to come.

He said he will ensure a smooth transition till his tenure ends and available even after that for any counsel the company may need from time to time.

Who will be DMart’s new CEO?
IIT Roorkee and IIM Lucknow alumnus Anshul Asawa, who joins the company as CEO Designate from March 15, 2025, is expected to take over as the MD and CEO on the 1st of February, 2026, upon the completion of Neville’s term in that position.

Asawa has a 30-year long stint at Unilever where he had leadership roles overseeing the growth of product categories and developing impactful functions in India, Asia, and Europe.

He currently serves as Country Head of Unilever in Thailand and General Manager for the Home Care business unit in Greater Asia.

During his tenure of over 15 years in India, Anshul held key leadership positions in sales, marketing and distribution.

He led the digitisation efforts at HUL and was also at the forefront of leading product innovations for homecare
categories and sales & distribution transformations in urban and rural markets within India. He is known for his consumer-centricity, commercial discipline, and execution focus.