ITC veteran Sachin Sahay frontrunner in CEO race at Birla Opus
Sachin Sahay, ITC Ltd's sales operations head, is likely to become CEO of Birla Opus, succeeding Rakshit Hargave. Sahay has 23 years of experience at ITC and will face challenges in a competitive paints market. Hargave has joined Britannia as CEO after his departure.
Mumbai: Sachin Sahay, executive vice-president—sales operations at ITC Ltd, has emerged as the frontrunner to take over as chief executive officer of the Aditya Birla Group-backed Birla Opus, the disruptor in India’s ₹70,000-crore paints market, according to two people aware of the development.
Sahay is set to succeed Rakshit Hargave, who stepped down as the chief executive in November 2025.
Birla Opus did not respond to Mint’s queries sent on 8 January on Sahay’s likely appointment as the new chief executive officer. Sahay did not respond to Mint's calls, messages and emails on the new position. ITC also did not respond to Mint’s queries on 13 January.
Sahay spent over 23 years at ITC, having started his career as a brand manager in 2002 and has held the current position for the past nine years. In this position, Sahay has led the company's pan-India sales for the cigarettes and FMCG businesses, overseeing sales strategy and execution, distributor and field force management, data analytics, and channel strategy.
Sahay, an alumnus of SVKM's Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai, will step in at a critical juncture for the paints industry, with incumbents battling to defend their market share amid a mixed demand environment.
Market disruption
After decades of relative stability, the paints industry witnessed a significant disruption over the past year. Deep-pocketed conglomerates have entered the market, starting with the Aditya Birla Group launching Birla Opus in 2024. This was followed by JSW Paints acquiring Dutch major Akzo Nobel’s India business. JSW now appears to be consolidating its operations after naming Parth Jindal as chairman of the acquired firm last week.
“While we expect Birla group to announce a successor soon, we believe the exit of the chief architect will have a potential effect on near-medium term growth prospects," said analysts at ICICI Securities in a note dated 5 November 2025. It said the new entrant has a market share of 10% and has invested ₹97.27 billion out of the initial budget of ₹100 billion.
ICICI Securities’ head of research Manoj Menon told Mint earlier that Asian Paints, India’s largest paintmaker, has already turned aggressive and is likely to remain so, especially on brand spending. He also expects Birla Opus to double down at least once more before assessing how the market stabilizes, particularly following the leadership transition.
Hargave was the first chief executive of Birla Opus and had joined Grasim in 2021. Under his leadership, Birla Opus executed its first phase of expansion with six manufacturing plants located in Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
After Hargave's exit, Himanshu Kapania, the managing director of Birla Opus's parent Grasim Industries, has been overseeing the paints business as interim chief executive officer.
Hargave is now the new chief executive officer of biscuit maker Britannia. This reflects the growing interchangeability of top leadership across consumer-facing businesses.
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