Brands
LINC Limited appoints Hitesh Singla as head of marketing
The writing instruments giant has hired Hitesh Singla as head of marketing, betting on his two decades of brand-building firepower to ink a bolder consumer story
KOLKATA: LINC Limited, the Kolkata-based writing instruments manufacturer with a footprint spanning more than 50 countries, has appointed Hitesh Singla as its head of marketing, a hire that signals the company’s intent to fight harder for consumer attention in one of India’s most fiercely contested stationery categories.
Singla arrives with over two decades of marketing muscle behind him, having built, revived and scaled brands across consumer durables, personal care, healthcare, retail and houseware. His CV reads like a tour of Indian and global brand management: he introduced and grew Stabilo, UHU and Rapid in the Indian market, helped revive product categories for Revlon, and most recently served as head of marketing at KAI India, where he sharpened the brand’s presence in personal grooming and houseware.
Before KAI, Singla held leadership roles at Godrej & Boyce and the Avantha Group, among others, organisations where scale, complexity and consumer diversity are non-negotiable realities.
At LINC, he will own the company’s end-to-end marketing strategy: brand equity, integrated campaigns and consumer engagement, all calibrated to a market that is shifting fast. His approach blends data-driven insight with what he calls creative storytelling, precisely the kind of bilingual fluency that legacy brands need when nostalgia alone will no longer do the heavy lifting.
“LINC Limited holds a strong legacy in the writing instruments category,” said Singla, “and I look forward to building on this foundation to further strengthen its brand relevance in a rapidly evolving market. The focus will be on driving sharper consumer insights, innovation-led marketing, and creating deeper engagement across touchpoints.”
An alumnus of Punjab University with a master’s degree in international business, Singla is said to be as comfortable with cultures, languages and history as he is with a campaign brief, a disposition that may serve him well as LINC pushes deeper into global markets.
For a company that already sells pens across five continents, the real challenge now is making consumers care which pen they pick up. Singla’s job is to make sure it is a LINC.
Brands
Reliance Retail FY26 revenue rises 11.8 Per Cent to Rs 3.7 lakh crore
Q4 revenue up 11.1 Per Cent, hyperlocal orders surge 4x, PAT steady
MUMBAI: Reliance Retail isn’t just ringing up sales, it’s ringing doorbells faster than ever. Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) reported a steady FY26 performance, with growth powered by store expansion, a sharp surge in hyperlocal commerce, and consistent traction across grocery, fashion and jewellery. For the full year, revenue rose 11.8 per cent year-on-year to Rs 3,70,026 crore. In the January–March quarter, revenue from operations climbed 11.1 per cent to Rs 87,344 crore, up from Rs 78,622 crore a year earlier.
Operating performance remained stable, with Q4 EBITDA inching up 3.1 per cent YoY to Rs 6,921 crore from Rs 6,711 crore. However, quarterly profit after tax held steady at Rs 3,563 crore. For the full fiscal, PAT grew 11.7 per cent to Rs 13,842 crore.
Expansion remained a key lever. RRVL added 1,564 new stores during FY26, while simultaneously scaling its digital and hyperlocal commerce play. The latter emerged as a standout, with daily orders surging more than fourfold year-on-year in Q4, underlining a clear shift towards faster, localised fulfilment.
In grocery, large-format stores maintained momentum, aided by festive demand and the expansion of Smart Bazaar, which crossed 1,000 stores. Promotional campaigns such as ‘Full Paisa Vasool’ delivered record results, with sales rising 26 per cent YoY.
Digital commerce also picked up pace. JioMart added 5.8 million new users in Q4, nearly doubling its registered base year-on-year. Hyperlocal orders grew 29 per cent sequentially and over 300 per cent annually during the quarter.
Fashion and lifestyle saw steady traction. Ajio recorded a 23 per cent YoY rise in average bill value, while fast-fashion platform Shein crossed 11 million app installs, scaling rapidly with expanding product lines.
The jewellery business added further shine, with average bill value jumping 53 per cent YoY, largely driven by rising gold prices and sustained consumer demand.
Commenting on the shift, RRVL executive director Isha Ambani said hyperlocal commerce has become a structural growth driver, with orders rising more than fourfold over the year.
Looking ahead to FY27, the company is betting on technology to deepen engagement. The focus, Ambani noted, will be on AI-led merchandising, sharper pricing strategies and disciplined execution turning scale into sustained customer value.
In short, the carts are fuller, the clicks are quicker, and the next phase looks less about reach and more about precision.
