Om Pizza hires key veterans

Om Pizza, a portfolio company of TVS Capital Funds Limited has appointed two key veterans in leadership positions to lead the company. Om Pizza (OP) is the master franchisee for Papa Johns Pizza in India as well as Chillis, the popular Tex-Mex restaurants in South and West India. The appointment follows fresh investments made by TVS Shriram Growth Fund 1A in OP.

Tejpavansingh Gandhok (Pavan), the ex co-founder and CEO of Litebite Foods, would provide strategic leadership to Om Pizza. Earlier at Litebite, Pavan helped the startup company to scale rapidly to become one of India’s top restaurant chains. Prior to Litebite, he has worked in senior roles across private equity and strategy consulting with firms such as BCG and AT Kearney. In addition to Pavan, V Kannan a seasoned HUL veteran has also joined the team as General Manager – Commercial and Operations. During his stint at HUL, he headed Exports division, Indirect Taxation and other key roles.

Gopal Srinivasan, CMD, TVS Capital informs; “We are very bullish on the growth prospects of both the Chili’s and Papa John’s brands - they are great brands with offerings that appeal to Indian consumers aspirations and tastes.  We have aggressive strategic growth plans for both these brands over the next few years. We are delighted to have a leadership team of Pavan and Kannan’s capability with an outstanding track-record to lead this venture into the next level of exciting growth, from the strong platform that has already been established.”