At his glass-walled office, Pirojsha Adi Godrej, 45, the chairman designate of Godrej Industries, sits with his back to the renowned mangroves of Vikhroli stretching into the horizon. Pirojsha, who collects manuscripts ranging from the Mughal era to contemporary times, is now dedicated to nurturing the storied Godrej legacy, which grew significantly during his father (Adi Godrej) and uncle’s (Nadir) eras. The succession comes two years after the 129-year-old Godrej group split into two—Godrej Industries Group and Godrej Enterprises Group. The next-generation leader has already proved his business acumen by overseeing Godrej Properties’ growth from ₹40 crore in annual sales in 2004 to over ₹34,000 crore now, making it India’s largest residential real estate company.
Can he achieve similar success with the group’s other businesses? He has certainly set ambitious targets: a ₹5 trillion market capitalization in five years, with a possible listing of its chemicals and financial services businesses.
Mint caught up with Pirojsha to understand his new priorities. Edited excerpts.
Congratulations on your forthcoming role. How will the group’s management differ from Nadir Godrej’s era?
I don’t expect any major change because it’s not a wholesale change in management. I was vice chair of the group; I was involved with all key decisions; I was directly overseeing three of these companies, and I was quite hands-on with the other three. So, I feel very well prepared to understand where the group is, what the opportunities are, and what the challenges are. In our generation, on our side of the business, we decided many years ago that I would be stepping into this role. So, I’ve known it’s been coming, been thinking about it, been preparing for it. I’m very excited. Hopefully you’ll see more momentum. At the same time, we value the base we’ve created, and we want to celebrate that and build on it—not see some huge pivot in any new direction.
When did the planning start for you to take over the leadership?
I think everything in life, in some ways, is a preparation. Family businesses are unique in that sense. Growing up, dinner table conversations often involve business issues. In terms of my professional journey, running Godrej Properties from almost the startup stage—we were about 40 employees with ₹40 crore sales when I joined the business in 2004—we ended last year with about 5,000 employees and ₹34,000 crore in sales. So I’ve seen that business through many, many stages of its growth. Hopefully, there will be good learnings we can apply as our other businesses seek to go through a similar growth phase. Being on the boards of all our companies, getting to understand them in detail, and spending time with the teams… overall, I feel very prepared.
With new responsibilities come fresh priorities. Can you talk about it?
In the last couple of years, we restructured the group into two different parts (Godrej Industries Group and Godrej Enterprises Group). I think we now have the unique position of being both a 129-year-old business with the legacy that has all the strengths of the brand and the values that have persisted over this long period and also just a two-year-old group in its new form. We’re thinking about what this new chapter must look like. As part of that, we’ve come up with a new purpose statement. Our new purpose line is ‘Crafting tomorrow since 1897.’ The ‘since 1897’ part is supposed to stand for the ethics, the values, the trust, and solidity of the group. And crafting is a word intentionally chosen to signify a deliberate, high quality focus on building what’s next.
Investors will closely watch your moves. Can you reveal what’s in your mind?
We’ve set ourselves a new financial ambition for the next five years. The Godrej Industries Group comprises essentially six operating businesses. We have three publicly listed platforms—Godrej Consumer Products, Godrej Properties and Godrej Agrovet, which also includes listed subsidiary Astec LifeSciences. And we have three unlisted platforms: Godrej Capital, Godrej Chemicals and Godrej Ventures, which is a real estate private equity business. We expect Godrej Capital and Godrej Chemicals to be publicly listed within the next five years. At the end of this period, our aspiration is to have the value of these six businesses at ₹5 trillion, which is about three times from where we ended the last financial year. At the group level, we’d like to grow revenue by at least 15% a year on a compounded basis, earnings per share by at least 20%, and we’d like each of our individual businesses to have an ROE (return on equity) of at least 18%.
And your plans to push some of the slow moving businesses?
As a group, we’re quite happy with the momentum we have. We’ve been growing both sales and earnings at over 20% for the last five years. You’re absolutely right that the distribution of growth hasn’t been ideal, and that there are opportunities for individual businesses to pick up pace. The current set of six businesses doesn’t involve every business that we had five-six years ago. We have exited businesses that we felt didn’t have the potential to contribute the kind of growth we’re looking for.
But within these six businesses, some will grow faster. For example, I would expect our financial services business to be the fastest growing over the next five years. Godrej Properties has been one of the most exciting growth stories. Sales have been growing at over 40% a year over the last five years; earnings even faster. Fiscal year 2026 (FY26) was the third consecutive year where it was the largest company in the country by residential sales. But we estimate our market share in that business to be about 5%. The incredible combination of being a market leader while having a very modest market share implies that the growth opportunity remains robust. Over the last five years, we’ve almost doubled our market share in that business. We think there’s an opportunity to, once again, double the market share.
FMCG as an industry has been a slow mover…
FMCG as a category has seen very slow growth over the last couple of years. Lots of different contributing reasons, one of which is a K-shaped recovery post the pandemic. Most businesses targeting higher-end customers like Godrej Properties have seen a very good period the last 3-4 years while most businesses targeting the middle and the lower-end, from an economic standpoint, have had a tougher time. I think we’re seeing some of that reverse a little bit now, post the GST (goods and services tax) cuts and some steps taken by the government. We’re starting to see some green shoots and we’re quite optimistic. I expect to see growth in that business pick up substantially compared to the last couple of years.
What would be the challenges in Godrej Agrovet? It is a unique company with businesses spanning animal feed, oil palm, poultry and the shareholding in Astec LifeSciences.
Coming to Godrej Agrovet, it is already a market leader in some of the categories it operates in, like animal nutrition and oil palm, again though with relatively modest market shares. So the growth opportunity remains very strong. We’ve just got new leadership, both at the family and at the CEO (chief executive officer) levels. My cousin Burjis has recently been appointed as the chairperson. We are quite excited about the opportunity there.
And the chemicals business?
I will directly start overseeing the chemicals business as part of the leadership transition. That business, in the last five years, has already compounded sales and profits at over 20%. But I think we’re just scratching the surface, because we’re pivoting from a commodity oleochemical business to a more specialty chemicals business. We are looking at Astec Lifesciences (a listed subsidiary of Godrej Agrovet) as part of this chemicals platform that we would like to build. We still have to decide on the structure. But clearly, we think that it is a chemicals business more than an agri business.
Then there is the Godrej’s ventures arm…
Godrej Ventures is at a very early stage. It is a real estate private equity business that has partnered with Godrej Properties on some portion of what it does, and is also doing a lot of new things of its own. For example, we recently announced a film studios venture. Given the scale of the film business in India and in Mumbai in particular, it’s remarkable that we don’t have any new, modern film studios. We’re also looking at other new spaces, like managed offices.
There are a few gaps in your financial services portfolio, like an AMC (asset management company) or an insurance business. Would you look at adding those through acquisitions?
Our intent and our focus in Godrej Capital has been to prove ourselves in each business before opening up new fronts. This is a marathon, not a sprint. We started with the HFC (housing finance company) that’s done very well. We opened an NBFC (non-banking financial company) several years ago, which is also doing very well. There’ll be announcements on new categories in the not too distant future. Over time, we do expect to be a full service financial services venture. It won’t be insurance, AMC, everything at once, but the first part of the next step will be announced quite soon.
You took a significant write-down in your Africa business at Godrej Consumer. Is that fully behind you now?
Yes. In fact, that business has seen a strong turnaround in the last year. A lot of credit goes to Sudhir Sitapati, the CEO, and Aasif Malbari, the CFO (chief financial officer). They’ve done good work over the last couple of years in restructuring the business. And this year has been the best year for our Africa business since it started over a decade ago.
As the chairperson, how is your equation with your siblings and cousins? How do you resolve the different views?
There’s a high degree of alignment in the Godrej Industries Group; absolutely no disagreements between the promoters on what the direction should be. The succession plan was clearly laid out and agreed to by everyone. I think the opportunity is to spend as little time trying to convince each other about stuff and try to face the market and do the best we can. This whole exercise of restating our purpose, reiterating our values, and setting ourselves a clear vision over the next five years has been a great way to bounce ideas off each other, share what our opinions are, what excites us, and what the opportunities could be. That has led to, if anything, an additional opportunity to come together in this collective vision for the next few years.
One of the reasons for the restructuring was to make sure that each group could have that high degree of alignment within their respective parts. So we’re very happy that the exercise got done in an amicable way. Family relations, even across both groups, have never been better. Several of our cousins in our generation were holidaying together post the restructuring.
So, what keeps you awake at night?
These days, with the current occupant of the White House, you have no idea how to plan. Suddenly there’s a tariff and then no tariff, war, then no war… It’s an unfortunate example of what bad leadership can do. Over the last couple of years, this has created a fair amount of uncertainty and makes it a little harder to plan.
How do you balance work and life?
I think it’s important to strike the right work-life balance. I don’t consider myself a workaholic. Obviously, there will be periods when the balance might tip in either direction. For instance, this has been a little bit of a work-only kind of month; April tends to be quite a busy period. But I think overdoing it on the work side often doesn’t benefit either your personal life or, ultimately, work itself. You have to look at this as a marathon, not a sprint. I really enjoy travelling, so I try to make sure I do quite a lot of that. I’ve had the privilege of visiting 103 countries.
So, you don’t believe in a 70-hour work week?
Not at all, not at all (laughs).
You are a collector. Would you like to talk about it?
As a collector, I think it’s a bug that you are probably born with. Even as a kid, I was collecting coins, stamps, or something or the other. I collect all sorts of things connected to Indian history, but largely it’s a collection focused on books and manuscripts, like the Hamzanama. Akbar commissioned this manuscript, which one could arguably call the world’s greatest manuscript. It took the imperial Mughal library 10 to 15 years to complete with 100 master painters. The original manuscript is thought to have 1,200 individual paintings with calligraphy at the back. When Nadir Shah sacked Delhi, this was one of the many things taken from the library. Most of it is now lost to history but about 200 pages or so still survive. I’ve been able to acquire a few of the paintings from this manuscript. I also have a large archive of Gandhiji’s correspondence with his brother, with his son, his blood test, his will, all sorts of things connected to Gandhiji and Tagore. It’s quite a range, from the Harappan civilization all the way to modern first editions by the likes of Rushdie and pretty much everything in between.
