Chief Financial Officer

Listed Co: CFO - Capital Markets & M&A - Manufacturing - 18-25 yrs- Ayodhya

Company: NSE/BSE-listed Indian manufacturer - Sustainability-led - Packaging with a Soul Headquarters: Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh

Sector: Compostable & sustainable packaging - Bagasse-based pulp, paper, moulded ware, flexibles

Founded: 1981 - 44+ years - Recent rebrand to a category-defining sustainability identity

Scale: ~- 400 Cr revenue (FY25) - ~33% from exports across 30+ countries - ~- 55 Cr PAT

Reports To: Group Lead & Managing Director (founder-led, owner-driven)

Location: Ayodhya (primary) - Noida (secondary) - Extensive Ayodhya - Noida travel

Engagement: Full-time, on-site

The Mandate at a Glance:

Our client is hiring its next Chief Financial Officer. This is a build seat, not a maintenance seat. The next 24 months will see the company commission its flagship capex programme - the world's first compostable flexible packaging facility (announced at ~- 750 Cr in Ayodhya) - consolidate current operations, and accelerate into the next leg of growth. The CFO will be the financial spine of that journey: capital markets, treasury, governance, IR, M&A, and a real-time, dashboard-driven finance function across all SBUs.

The brief is direct, owner-led, and time-sensitive. The Group Lead & Managing Director is the principal sparring partner for the CFO from day one.

About the Client:

The client is a 44-year-old Ayodhya-based business that has reinvented itself, generation-by-generation, into one of the most distinctive sustainability stories on the Indian bourses. The company makes compostable packaging - flexible films, pulp, paper, and moulded tableware - primarily from sugarcane bagasse, a by-product of sugar manufacture. Both raw material and biomass-based fuel are sourced within 200 km of the Ayodhya plant. The company runs an 8.5 MW captive biomass power plant. Roughly a third of revenue comes from exports across 30+ countries; the rest is domestic, with marquee QSR and food-service customers.

In 2023, the company rebranded and made its NSE debut under the new identity. In 2024, it raised ~- 245 crore in fresh capital. Most recently, it announced a "Super Mega" category capex programme classified by the Government of Uttar Pradesh - the capex will roughly double production capacity and establish India's, and the world's, first compostable flexible packaging facility at scale.

The Group Lead & Managing Director is a familiar voice on Indian sustainability platforms and has spent two decades building the organisation around one belief: "There is no such thing as recycling, only downcycling. Each material must decompose to contribute to life, and so must our materials." The company's tagline - Packaging with a Soul - is, by every account from people inside the firm, treated as an operating principle, not a slogan.

The Role:

The CFO will own the financial strategy, governance, capital structure, and investor narrative of a listed manufacturing company at the inflection point of significant growth. The role reports directly to the Managing Director and works alongside the Audit Committee, the Board, lenders, institutional and retail shareholders, and the wider leadership team across SBUs.

Mission:

- Build financial strength within the organisation through fiscal and monetary discipline.

Outcomes the CFO Will Be Held To:

- Strengthen financial health - Net Debt/EBITDA - 1.5x; RoCE - 15%.

- Lead cost-optimisation initiatives that protect growth, with material annual run-rate savings.

- Ensure 100% statutory and regulatory compliance - zero audit qualifications.

- Stand up real-time, decision-grade financial dashboards across every SBU.

- Lead investor relations - securing sustainable capital access and supporting valuation growth at 2x CAGR.

Key Areas of Ownership:

1. Financial freedom for the organization (Project funding & Working Capital)

- Raise capital across debt (banks, FIs, impact and structured), equity, quasi-equity, preferential and rights instruments.

- Drive down cost of capital and ease of access; manage working capital cost YOY.

2. Investor & Shareholder Relations:

- Be the financial mouthpiece of the company to public-market investors, analysts, and the Board.

- Run quarterly earnings calls, results updates, road shows, annual reports, exchange filings, and press releases.

- Build transparency, NPS > 75 with the investor base, and close every investor query end-to-end.

3. Financial Strategy & AOP:

- Refine the Annual Operating Plan process - data-led, indicator-driven, low budget-vs-actual variance.

- Run benchmarking studies across industries; bring outside-in views into strategic decisions.

- Identify M&A opportunities, run feasibility, valuations, due-diligence, and structuring.

4. Internal Controls & Audit:

- Design and run a cyclical Internal Audit programme covering every part of the business.

- Partner with Internal Audit and SBU leaders to close action items on time.

- Represent at the Audit Committee, embed inputs, drive efficiency improvement loops.

5. Corporate Governance:

- Frame governance policy aligned to the Companies Act, SEBI LODR, and exchange requirements.

- Be the flag-bearer for governance - train, communicate, and embed across leadership.

- Ensure complete adherence to Board, Audit Committee, MCA, and exchange obligations. Zero red flags.

6. Financial Accounting & MIS:

- Run a vibrant, accurate financial accounting environment - timely, clean, automated.

- Modernise the stack - bring in tools, automation, and team capability across sub-functions.

- Timely monthly MIS, every month, no exceptions.

7. Tax Management:

- Structure direct and indirect tax (GST, customs, transfer pricing) for business need and tax efficiency.

- Zero tolerance for non-compliance. Use compliance software to ensure every filing is on time.

8. Mergers & Acquisitions:

- Identify M&A opportunities aligned to growth strategy.

- Run valuations, negotiations, due diligence, and deal structuring.

- Lead the legal and integration process post-close.

9. Build a data-led, pre-emptive organisation

- Stand up clear, decision-supporting dashboards for every function.

- Know the automation landscape - software, tools, and integrations available.

- Mitigate identified business risks through systems and automation.

What We're Looking For?

This is a hire for someone who has done the work, knows the rhythm of a listed manufacturing company, and has the appetite to build at the source - not from a metro head-office.

Background:

- CA and / or MBA (Finance) - preferably both.

- 18-22 years of finance leadership; meaningful time as a Finance Head, Deputy CFO, or CFO of a listed Indian entity.

- Strong manufacturing finance grounding - cost, working capital, capex governance, plant-level visibility.

- Demonstrable international exposure - exports, forex, transfer pricing, multi-jurisdiction compliance.

Capability Signals:

- Has run a fundraise (capital markets and/or banks/FIs and/or structured/impact) and lived the cycle from term sheet to close.

- Has owned investor relations - analyst days, quarterly calls, road shows - for a listed entity.

- Has been through at least one M&A as a principal - feasibility, valuation, due-diligence, structuring.

- Treasury and forex are second nature - not a delegated function.

- Comfortable with SEBI LODR, the Companies Act, and the rhythm of Audit and Board committees.

- Modern stack - has automated MIS, dashboards, compliance software, and reduced human dependency in close cycles.

Disposition:

- A builder. Lean, hands-on, comfortable in a founder-led, mid-cap environment.

- Commercially fluent - finance is decision-support, not just a control function.

- Comfortable being the financial face of the company - to a Board, an analyst, a banker, a regulator.

- Genuinely interested in regenerative manufacturing and the next decade of Indian sustainability.

- Willing to base in Ayodhya. This is non-negotiable.

Why Ayodhya - Why Now?

Ayodhya in 2026 is not the Ayodhya of three years ago. The Maharishi Valmiki International Airport opened in December 2023, with direct connectivity to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad - Phase 2 will scale capacity to 60 lakh passengers a year. The redeveloped Ayodhya Dham railway station, the - 12,000 crore NHAI investment in the bypass and the Parikrama Marg, and the city's emerging hospitality footprint (multiple national luxury hotel groups) are turning a heritage city into one of India's most consequential frontier locations.

For the right candidate, this is a once-in-a-generation alignment: a listed company headquartered in a city that has just become globally significant, a capex programme that will reshape the company, and a finance seat with founder-level access from day one. There is a Noida link - the company maintains a presence there, and the CFO will travel between Ayodhya and Noida regularly, with face-time across NCR-based bankers, advisors, and Board members.

If you have spent the last decade running finance from a glass tower, this is the chance to build at the source.

Compensation:

Competitive - benchmarked to listed mid-cap CFO range, with the upside profile of a growth-stage, founder-led company. Specific ranges will be shared confidentially with shortlisted candidates.

Confidential search managed by Haachi. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted directly. Haachi is an equal-opportunity executive search firm; we encourage applications from candidates of every background.