Department store chain Shoppers Stop announced the appointment of Pankaj Chaturvedi as the company's new chief financial officer (CFO), effective April 1, 2026. According to reports from Reuters, Chaturvedi will replace Karunakaran Mohanasundaram, who has served in the finance chief position since 2018 and has decided to step down to pursue opportunities outside the company. The latest reports from Motilal Oswal confirm that Mohanasundaram is leaving to pursue opportunities outside the company, marking the end of his tenure after nearly a decade in the finance role.
Chaturvedi currently serves as CFO at Saregama India Ltd. and brings extensive experience from the telecom sector, having previously held senior roles at Vodafone and Reliance Jio. As reported by Reuters, at Vodaphone, he served as the Head of National Business Finance. A chartered accountant by profession, Chaturvedi holds a Master's degree in Commerce with specialisation in Accounting and Finance from Gujarat University and has 19 years of experience in finance.
The leadership change comes as India's retail market is positioned for significant expansion, with a new joint report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the Retailers Association of India (RAI) projecting the market to reach ₹210-215 trillion by 2035, up from ₹90-95 trillion in 2025. According to the report titled 'Winning Codes for Retail 2035: Capturing the ₹200 Trillion Prize', this growth is being driven by India's resilient economy with 8% GDP growth in 2025 and sharp rise in digital adoption. As noted by BCG's Abheek Singhi, India remains one of the world's fastest-growing economies, with the country on track to become the third-largest economy globally by 2030.
The management change comes amid a broader crisis in India's retail sector, with 28-40% of organised retail outlets operating at a loss, according to a survey by Vector Consulting Group covering 100 companies with annual revenue exceeding ₹500 crore each. As reported by The Economic Times, the problem stems from shelves crowded with stagnant stock, with retailers often moving unsold products to better shelves instead of removing them. 94% of retailers introduce new products without removing slow-moving ones, leading to congested displays and reduced full-price selling windows. The survey found that 96% of retailers move unsold products to better shelves rather than removing them, while only 9% of retailers actually use daily metrics to decide inventory purchases.
Kavindra Mishra, managing director of Shoppers Stop, has announced a comprehensive turnaround strategy, telling analysts that the company is conducting store-by-store profitability assessments. As reported by The Economic Times, Mishra stated that where turnaround timelines appear too long, the company will make clear closure decisions before mid-next year. The integration of artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing retail operations, with the report noting that India's internet adoption has grown more than three times since 2016, creating high "adoption elasticity" for new technologies like Generative AI. Retailers adopting end-to-end AI transformations can unlock performance gains of 40% to 60%, far higher than the 10% to 15% seen from isolated experiments.
Following the new leadership announcement, Shoppers Stop's share price closed at ₹372.30, down 27.81 points (-6.95%) on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, according to Motilal Oswal data. The company's shares have delivered more than 94% returns to investors over the last five years, though in the last one year, the stock has lost 31% in value. The recent stock decline reflects broader challenges facing the retail sector, with slow-moving inventory bleeding top retailers across India, even as the sector prepares for significant growth driven by AI adoption and consumption surge.
