Aug 2023 – Sep 2025 · 2 yrs 1 mo · Kolkata, West Bengal, India · On-site

• Achieved the milestone of EBITDA profitability for the company in Q3' FY 24-25, first time in the last 22 quarters.
• As Executive Director & Chief Merchandising Officer I am part of the senior leadership and Management committee of the company.
• I drive the business by leading category management and merchandising across all categories of FMCG, Staples, Fresh, Home and General Merchandise, Electronics and Fashion.
• I also lead Online and offline merchandising, Pricing strategy, analytics, supply chain planning and Space planning for the business.
• Manage and lead a team of almost 100 talented associates with my DRs comprising of SVPs, VPs and AVPs

Jul 2021 – Mar 2023 · 1 yr 8 mos · Gurugram, Haryana, India

• Driving Snapdeal towards EBITDA break even. Heading the entire business at Snapdeal by leading the functions of Category Management, Merchandising, Private Labels, Seller strategy and ecosystem, Analytics and Business strategy.
• 1. Leading all business units - Fashion, Home, General Merchandise, FMCG, Beauty & Personal care & Electronics
• 2. Launched and growing private brands across all categories
• 3. On-deck and Off-deck merchandising
• 4. Business strategy
• 5. Seller ecosystem, policies and services
• 6. Pricing strategy and analytics

Oct 2020 – Jul 2021 · 9 mos

• Leading multiple mandates for the company:
• 1. GMM & Merchandising Head - Staples
• (Oils, Flours, Rice, Pulses, Sugar, Dry Fruits, Spices)
• 2. GMM & Merchandising Head - Fresh
• (F&V, Frozen Veg and Non veg, Dairy, Meats)
• 3. Head of Private Brands - All Business units (FMCG, Staples, Fresh, General Merchandise, Consumer Durables and Electronics)
• 4. Head of Pricing - Strategy and Operations
• 5. Head of Cost Analytics
• 6. Head of Merchandise planning

Jan 2020 – Sep 2020 · 8 mos

• Building and growing Walmart's Private Brands in India across all categories - Home Care, Personal Care, Processed Foods, Beverages, Staples, Kitchen and Home appliances, Stationery and General Merchandise
• Deep understanding of category and assortment strategy and using it to arrive at a sharp Private Brands portfolio, establishing clear "Customer Value Proposition"
• Responsible for end to end P&L - Sales, Gross Margin, Shrink & Damage and SG&A
• Lead business cycle from product development, Supplier development, Audits and compliance, commercial negotiations, Category management, GTM strategy, marketing and front end across all channels - In-store, Out of store and E-com

Jun 2018 – Dec 2019 · 1 yr 6 mos

• Cost Analytics:
• Set up a new function of “Cost Analytics” at Walmart India to drive fact-based negotiations with top suppliers across FMCG, Consumer Durable and Staples by setting up tools and processes and drove significant savings to the company bottom line in Year 1 itself :
• > Analyzed complex data and came up with insights and arguments which were used to negotiate with top suppliers, thus reducing “Cost of Goods sold”
• > Set up a Tableau tool which works as a playbook to make every data point available to buyers at a click
• > Reporting to India and Global CEO on the project, involving significant "change management" across the organization
• Pricing:
• Successfully launched the "pricing policy" for the business and led the change management with a view to reinforce EDLP and maximize sales & margins by setting up the right price index for each of our customer segments
• > Stakeholder management across CMO, COO and CFO and their teams
• > Established clear and transparent pricing guidelines
• > Improved margins without compromising on sales, thereby creating a robust and healthy
• business
• Merchandise Planning:
• Led space planning, merchandise planning (creating in-store excitement through events and feature spaces) and print planning and set up a robust process to select the right products for promotions and feature displays and then measuring effectiveness of the same

May 2017 – May 2018 · 1 yr · Faridabad Area, India

• Half of India - 530 Mn Indians need vision correction but only 170 Mn have them. Lenskart was founded in 2010 with a vision to revolutionize eyewear in India. Our mission since inception has been to create enthusiastically satisfied customers every single time and we are committed to doing whatever it takes to achieve it.
• As part of the leadership team at Lenskart, I own the company P&L and lead the Buying & Merchandising function for all company channels (Online, Offline & Others) looking after Procurement (Domestic & International), Merchandising, Planning, Inventory Management, Cataloguing & category growth strategy.

Apr 2016 – Apr 2017 · 1 yr

• Led the entire company's P&L across all business units - Electronics, Mobiles, Fashion, FMCG, Books and General Merchandise with all business and merchandising heads reporting to me
• Managing overall P&L and growth for the company (NMV and Net Margins).
• Leading teams across Category Management, Merchandising, Strategy & Planning, Pricing and Analytics.
• Delivered significant growth in gross margins and net margins while maintaining conversions and revenue growth at steady pace
• Led a team of over 300 people.
• CEO award for being among the top 5% talent in the company.
• Launched Snapdeal's hyper-local FMCG, Food & Grocery business - "Instant".
• Currently available in Gurgaon (on SD android and IoS app), it offers customers to buy all their Daily Needs (F&V, groceries, dairy,bakery, branded foods, home essentials, baby care, pet care) with same day delivery across convenient slots

Nov 2015 – Apr 2016 · 5 mos

• Dual role of managing a business unit (Home & General Merchandise) and Merchandising Strategy & Planning for the platform
• Led Merchandising planning, growth strategy, portfolio mix planning
• Built & led an analytics team for the company and ensured a robust reporting and analytics framework is created to help take business decisions
• Helped improve key merchandising property conversions by 60 bp through multiple initiatives
• Created a culture of learning through experiments which helped the team try new stuff, fail in some, succeed in others and then scale up where we saw success

Mar 2014 – Nov 2015 · 1 yr 8 mos

• Leading the Home & General Merchandise business at Snapdeal
• Built the business and team from scratch and grew business 20x within a year and attained leadership position in the industry
• Attained assortment leadership in the category using scientific assortment building tools
• Launched new businesses/categories like hardware, sanitary-ware, host of home services, HoReCa for professional consumer needs, Agri products, prefabricated wooden homes among other initiatives which helped create differentiation in the market
• Won the "Home & Lifestyle e-retailer of the Year" award in 2015 for exemplary growth and business innovations in the HOME space

Jan 2012 – Mar 2014 · 2 yrs 2 mos · Noida

• Strategy formulation & New Business initiatives for all retail verticals of the group
• Working on diverse projects across Retail & Food service - Right from conceptualization, primary & secondary market research, market sizing, CAPEX estimation, building an operating model to arrive at project feasibility & preparing financial statements to aid management decisions
• Jubilant FoodWorks – Dominos & Dunkin Donuts
• Strategic sourcing & Tie-ups for Jubilant Fresh
• Evaluated opportunities for backward integration in the Dominos supply chain
• Evaluated a new project to set up a plant for vegetable & chicken processing
• Jubilant Retail:
• Project on Assortment rationalization using “Category role matrix” across all categories
• Project on margin improvement in General Merchandise category
• Project on evaluating an “Online food & grocery model”
• Project on evaluating & conducting feasibility study for a “24/7 Convenience format retail model”

Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 · 1 yr

• Led North India expansion for Metro from category management perspective
• Successfully opened 2 Metro stores in North India from ground zero
• Responsible for conceptualizing category strategy, spearheading the sourcing and assortment building
• Conducted Market research and customer profiling for target segment in North
• Responsible for pan India sourcing strategy and execution, identifying manufacturer base and hubs for various product categories and development of private labels across categories

Sep 2008 – Jan 2011 · 2 yrs 4 mos

• Managing the P&L of Large Appliances, Home & Kitchen category across all Metro Stores in India
• Stock Management – Managing stock days and credit days to achieve negative working capital
• Managing promotions by negotiating with suppliers as per calendar thereby increasing category footfalls through increased penetration
• Introduction and management of own brands in relevant categories
• Managing Space – Increasing Sales per linear meter of space and maximizing GMROF (Gross margin return on floor space)
• Range review – Reviewing the assortment and pricing and benchmarking with market and competition to arrive at a assortment strategy for core target group customer
• Leading a team of 3 senior executives – training, mentoring and grooming them within the category
• Leading the cross functional team on sourcing for all New store openings in terms of identifying new suppliers in a new region to focus on local assortment
• Achievements:
• Awarded the best department in 2009 for highest growth in Margins and only department to achieve sales growth in Like for Like (LFL) stores
• Increased margins for household by 500 bp since taking over the category
• Best department in 2010 in terms of sales and margin growth (20% and 35%) respectively for LFL stores
• Best department for stock management with 14 days of negative working capital
• Revived the category assortment as per the organization strategy to cater to Horeca customers
• Trained and certified by Metro House of training with Skills like Advanced Assortment building, Negotiation skills, Team building, project management and Effective communications

May 2006 – Aug 2008 · 2 yrs 3 mos · Kolkata Area, India

• Dual responsibility of Category Management and Territory development
• Worked extensively in developing the category across all new stores in West Bengal, Karnataka and Delhi/NCR (identifying & registering vendors, assortment planning, pricing, master creation, ordering, planograming, promotion plan & floor display)
• Centrally negotiating, sourcing & merchandising, promotion planning for all Spencer’s stores
• Introducing new SKUs regularly to create excitement in the store
• Analyzing data and assessing “Category Role Matrix” to control category performance
• Setting prices to maximize profits and manage the performance of the ranges, planning promotions and markdowns, if necessary
• Overseeing the delivery and distribution of the stock and deal with supplier issues
• Coordinating with the zonal merchandising team to ensure implementation of plans
• Maintaining store wise database of category sales, margin, stocks and vendor performance
• Achievements:
• Setting up the category of General Merchandising from scratch and growing gross margins through continous negotiations with brands and vendors
• Launched 2 private labels - "Enriche" for crockery products and "Maroon" for Kitchenware range
• Spearheading the entire New store openings across the country and reviving non-performing regions

Jul 2002 – Jun 2005 · 2 yrs 11 mos · Bangalore, Pune

• Handled Sales to Industrial Customers in South India
• Covered major industrial segments - Steel, Paper, Power and Mining
• Organized various technical seminars at customer end
• Involved in recruitment, training and appraisal of Distributor Sales Force
• Handled Direct Sales to key Automotive OEMs in West India
• Handled Sales, Forecast and Collection for major Automotive OEMs - Tata Motors, M&M Auto and Tractors, Spicer India, Cummins India, John Deere Tractors and Dana India.
• Exceeded the assigned business plan by 11%
• Carved new business opportunities by involvement in the customer’s application right from the design stage