Schauna Chauhan

Leading Parle Agro's charge is 34-year-old Schauna Chauhan, its CEO and the eldest daughter of Prakash Chauhan, its founder.

Schauna has been associated with the business since 1999 when she joined the company's board as a director at age 22. Since she took over as CEO in 2006, the group has diversified into areas like confectionery, pure fruit juices and baked snacks, and has rapidly expanded its global presence, with exports to over 20 countries. As director Parle Agro, she has taken products like Frooti, Appy and N-Joi to theinternational market. She is also the brain behind the launch of Frooti in pet bottles, the first tetrapack beverage to hit the market in this avatar. Now she is the CEO of Parle Agro, a Mumbai-based food products manufacturing company with an annual turnover of Rs 650 crore.

Parle Products was founded in 1929 in British India. It was owned by the Chauhan family of Vile Parle, Mumbai. The original Parle company was split into three separate companies owned by the different factions of the original Chauhan family.

Parle Products, led by Vijay, Sharad and Anup Chauhan (owner of the brands Parle-G, Melody, Mango Bite, Poppins, Kismi Toffee Bar, Monaco and KrackJack)

Parle Agro, led by Prakash Chauhan and his daughters Schauna, Alisha and Nadia (owner of the brands such as Frooti and Appy)

Parle Bisleri, led by Ramesh Chauhan

All three companies continue to use the family trademark name "Parle".

The company forayed into the Rs 6,500-crore branded snacks segment, dominated by PepsiCo's Kurkure and ITC's Bingo, by launching Hippo, a baked health snack.

Parle Agro

Parle Agro commenced operations in 1984. It started with beverages, and later diversified into bottled water (1993), plastic packaging (1996) and confectionary (2007). Frooti, the first product rolled out of Parle Agro in 1985, became the largest selling mango drink in India.