Category Manager : Beverages Division

Category Manager- Sports & Fitness, Auto Accessories, Industrial Supplies

Category Manager - Sports & Fitness

KAM Head - Sports, Fitness and Nutrition Category

Co-founded ChaiSafari, a specialty tea company offering premium whole-leaf teas with the USP of "Tea by Moods". Tea by Moods is afirst-of-its-kind concept, creating a simple & relatable parameter to simplify the process of choosing teas for the consumer.PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT 35 tea blends developed in-house, combining both popular & unique flavour profiles Each blend is described using 7 attributes (aroma, strength, mouth feel etc.) to help a layman understand the complexities of tea.CHANNEL DEVELOPMENTONLINE Created our own e-commerce portal – oversaw end-to-end development i.e. web design, ecommerce set up, UI / UX.Collaborated with 15 aggregator websites to expand reach & increase revenue.OFFLINE Conceptualized and executed SIS model with live packing and blending (first in India). Developed & launchedproducts for retail placements as well as gifting.OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT Achieved revenue rate of Rs. 1.2 lakh per month within one year of operation, set to double in the next quarter with help ofover 20 sales partners online and offline. Managed P&L, sales, sourcing, vendor selection, inventory planning. Hired and trained 10 sales executives. Oversawdevelopment and execution of 3 store-in-store counters in 3 cities.

 Disbursing trade marketing budget of over ₹300 Cr. to drive targeted gross revenue (Beverages P&L) Delivering critical brand-pack growth, share & profitability in PepsiCo’s largest share market nationally Yearly strategy for channel wise promotion & month on month allocation of budget and promotion design Key stakeholder for new product/channel incubation through trade promotion activities  Key controller for all trade related spends for the beverage business across 30+ SKU’s & 14 sales manager areas  Inculcating trade spends consciousness amongst the sales team across managerial and frontline levels

ACHIEVEMENTS Trade Spend Champion Jul/Sep ’14 – Highest plan achievement with savings over allocated budget incountry  Best performance in New Product Development SKUs in the unit – YTD June 14. (aided in portfolio building) Amongst the top 2 volume index growth territories in the country in the month Aug ‘14ROLE  Managing beverage portfolio in 11 districts of Uttaranchal with a gross revenue of over Rs 80 Cr p.a. having close to 40 SKU’s and 11 brands Leading a team of 8 customer executives and 43 non-PCI employees to manage a total of 49 direct customers, 105 sub distributors, and 9000 retail outlets Grew the LRB category by 7%, BSD by 13%for the year 2014 Key focus areas are driving volumes, portfolio mix, Customer management and ROI management

 Responsible for Lenovo’s overall business (Corporate/Retail) in the 7 North Eastern states of India o Managed 2 Regional Distributors, 2 direct reportees, 9 front end sales executives & 69 retail storeso Led market expansion in the region by exploring new geographies, crafting go-to-market strategieso Devised optimum product mix for market expansion – 7x improvement in premium product mixo Project owner for channel expansion – increased base from 43 to 69 partners (60%) in 3 monthso Inventory management – SKU-wise forecasting & planning based on market intelligence Value Added Reseller Channel (VAR)o Led price negotiations & signed off on deals with partners on behalf of Lenovoo Managed channel conflict in terms of reselling & ran the business ensuring market disciplineo Charted customer/ partner value propositions to ensure bulls-eye targeting for product mix

PROJECT Post-launch evaluation of 5 new flavours of MaggiROLE  Conducted FGDs in 3 cities (distinct SEC & TG) to deduce consumer perceptions, purchase triggers Drew market insights through interactions with channel members, specifically retailers, distributors Researched impact of trade/consumer promotion on sales and purchase behaviour of consumersOUTCOME  Sales Data Analysis – Identified non-performing channels and RSMs as well as top contributors  Presented research findings on consumer insights and declining internal distribution