Mumbai: After nearly two decades of building some of India’s most recognisable brands from the inside — across telecom, sportswear, healthcare, and building materials — Sumit Bhatia is stepping into a new role: Co-Founder at 367 Agency.
The move marks a shift from corporate marketing leadership to entrepreneurship, and comes on the back of a career that reads like a tour of Indian brand-building itself: Airtel, Reebok, Bausch + Lomb, Dalmia Cement, and most recently Finolex Industries.
A Career Built Brand by Brand
Bhatia’s most recent stint was at Finolex Industries, where he spent over two and a half years, rising from Vice President & Head of Marketing & Communications to Vice President – Sales & Marketing. In that expanded role, he was responsible for integrating sales and marketing functions to drive national distribution growth, category expansion, and premiumization across the company’s pipes and fittings business — work that included masterbrand campaigns spanning television, sports, and cultural platforms.
Before Finolex, Bhatia spent close to five years at Dalmia Cement, where as General Manager – Marketing he led a masterbrand repositioning effort under the line “Future Today,” alongside the growth of premium sub-brands and state-level go-to-market expansion. His earlier stint there as Deputy General Manager included launching Dalmia Infra Pro — India’s first B2B cement brand — and re-launching the Vajram brand across South India.
His marketing grounding, however, came earlier still, during an eight-plus-year run at Bausch + Lomb, where he moved from Product & Trade Marketing Manager to Senior Product Manager across the company’s contact lens and lens care portfolio. Campaigns like #BlameTheFrame and #DontBeASpectator, along with the iConnect Model Hunt spanning 80 college campuses, were part of his push to drive youth adoption and digital-first engagement in the category. Before all of that, Bhatia cut his teeth in sales at Reebok India, managing key accounts and regional territories including Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Across each of these — telecom, sportswear, eyecare, cement, and pipes — Bhatia has operated at the intersection of brand-building and commercial outcomes, a thread that appears to be following him into this next chapter.
The Move to 367
Announcing the transition on LinkedIn, Bhatia framed it less as a job change and more as a natural continuation of a belief he’s carried through every stop in his career: that strong brands are built not by what companies say about themselves, but by what people come to believe about them.
The move brings him alongside people he’s known for years. He’s known 367 Agency’s Vishay Gupta for over two decades, and through that relationship has known Aditya Somaiya for close to ten years. More recent conversations with Sumeet Sonkusare and Abhishek Pawar, he said, reinforced his decision — a shared conviction that meaningful business growth comes from the right mix of strategy, creativity, and execution.
In his announcement, Bhatia thanked the mentors, colleagues, and partners who shaped his journey, with a special note of appreciation for his time at Finolex.
What This Signals
Executive moves from client-side marketing leadership into agency co-founding aren’t common, and they tend to say something about both the individual and the opportunity. Bhatia’s background suggests 367 Agency is positioning itself around brand strategy with a strong commercial lens — the kind of experience that comes from having owned P&L and GTM outcomes, not just campaigns.
For a founding team already built on long-standing relationships, Bhatia’s addition brings nearly two decades of category-spanning experience — from cement to contact lenses — to the table, and a stated commitment to building brands people trust, remember, and choose.
