Myntra chief Ananth Narayanan resigns, may delete CEO post forever

New Delhi : In the breaking news, Myntra’s chief executive officer (CEO) Ananth Narayanan has resigned from his role and it is likely that the firm will abolish his position forever. For now, Flipkart executive Amar Nagaram has been selected to take control of Myntra, a source close to the development said. 

Myntra leaders such as chief revenue officer Mithun Sundar took the charge in April and Manpreet Ratia who oversaw operations, supply chain and customer experience became the head of human resource department. But, both the key leaders have resigned. Flipkart has also attempted to retain key personnel at Myntra, offering retention bonuses and packages to 50-75 key executives and employees, the people cited above said.

However, the retention packages were not offered to those at the senior vice president level, they added. The Economic Times newspaper reported on Friday that Narayanan could leave Myntra and Nagaram could be made the head of the fashion retailer.

Another key Myntra leader, Manohar Kamath, who joined the online fashion retailer from Shoppers Stop in 2016, has been moved to Flipkart’s fashion unit, where he will report to Flipkart fashion head Rishi Vasudev, the people cited above said.

While about 150-200 people have already been laid off across Myntra and Jabong, another fresh round of recruitment is expected in coming weeks. 

While Jabong will continue to operate for now, Flipkart may shutter the platform after a few months, the people cited above said. Mint on November 16 reported that Jabong would be completely integrated with Myntra with traffic from Jabong directed to Myntra, after the integration is completed. While Myntra has been growing fast, Jabong has struggled. Myntra bought Jabong in July 2016 from Rocket Internet for $70 million mainly to avoid a rival buying it.

A spokeswoman for Myntra denied any plan to lay off workers. “Flipkart Group is deeply committed to the success of Myntra and Jabong as market-leading brands. The integration of the two brands’ back-office teams is a long-planned and one-off realignment that started since Myntra’s acquisition of Jabong in July 2016. We have no further restructuring plans at this time,” the spokeswoman said in an email. “We are confident that we can continue to link fashion industry know-how and ecommerce innovation for consumers in India and, increasingly, around the world. And we will continue to invest in the Myntra and Jabong brands and in our people to help make this happen.”

For now, source of Mint confirms that Myntra’s chief technology officer Jeyandran Venugopal is expected to be moved to Flipkart in a new role. Sources confirmed that Venugopal is being moved to a new role in the Flipkart storefront merchandising team.