When ITC began building its “good-for-you” food portfolio — spanning protein shakes, multigrain staples, and now clean-label snacks — one executive consistently surfaced in the growth narrative: Anuj Bansal.
That trajectory was formalised in January 2026, when Bansal was appointed Chief Business Officer (CBO) for Yoga Bar (Sprout Life Foods) at ITC Foods.
In this new role, he will oversee strategy, P&L, brand building, innovation, and go-to-market execution, signalling ITC’s intent to scale Yoga Bar into a category anchor.
Yoga Bar sits at the intersection of two powerful consumer trends: the premiumisation of packaged foods and a growing preference for healthier, ingredient-forward snacking.
ITC has positioned the brand as a clean-label, digital-first business with strengths in snack bars and muesli — segments it now aims to expand rapidly using its own distribution, sourcing, product development, and digital infrastructure.
ITC first announced its plan to acquire 100% of Sproutlife Foods in January 2023. The deal involves a phased acquisition, with a 47.5% stake to be acquired by March 2025 and the remainder based on agreed valuation terms.
The timeline explains the urgency of putting a senior operator like Bansal in charge — someone with both brand and commercial acumen, capable of driving integration and growth.
Bansal is a seasoned ITC insider with more than 18 years of brand and marketing experience. He has led several of the company’s prominent FMCG franchises, including Sunfeast, Bingo!, Dark Fantasy, Fabelle, and Candyman.
In 2024, he was elevated to Head of Marketing for Chocolates, Confectionery, Coffee & New Businesses, a portfolio that reflects some of ITC’s most visible and innovation-heavy consumer segments.
His appointment as CBO of Yoga Bar underscores ITC’s trust in his ability to deliver beyond traditional marketing.
The role involves not just storytelling but also strategy execution, innovation pipeline management, and performance delivery across channels. In his own public announcement of the new role, Bansal described it as a “builder” assignment and noted that he is 41.
Before joining ITC, Bansal held roles across consulting and corporate strategy, including stints at Tata Consultancy Services, EY, The Coca-Cola Company, and the Aditya Birla Group.
This cross-sector exposure is relevant, especially as the Yoga Bar role demands general management skills — balancing P&L ownership, category expansion, and operational alignment with ITC’s larger foods business.
His academic background also aligns with the demands of the role. Public profiles cite an MBA in marketing and finance from IIM Mumbai (formerly NITIE) and a B.Tech in ICT from the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology.
ITC has made no secret of its acquisition-driven growth strategy. Alongside Yoga Bar and 24 Mantra Organic, its leadership has described brand buyouts as a way to enter high-growth, premium food categories while responding to shifting consumer preferences around health, convenience, and sustainability. These acquisitions are core to the broader “ITC Next” strategy.
Yoga Bar, in particular, is seen as a digitally-native brand built on principles of transparency — “all natural” ingredients and no artificial additives.
With strong online recall and a growing offline presence, it fits ITC’s pattern of picking high-potential brands and plugging them into its distribution and supply chain infrastructure.
Bansal’s appointment reflects a familiar playbook: take a niche brand with strong fundamentals, connect it to ITC’s national scale, expand its innovation roadmap, explore adjacent categories, and improve unit economics through backend integration.
His leadership style, as seen through industry bios and speaker profiles, combines brand-building instincts with a strong results orientation. ET Edge, in a previous event listing, described him as “results-driven” and credited him with shaping high-impact brand campaigns across multiple categories.
At ITC, such a reputation typically earns leaders wider mandates. Moving from chocolates and confectionery to a CBO role suggests that Bansal is not just being asked to promote growth, but to engineer it — through sharper portfolio design, smarter distribution choices, and commercially viable innovation.
