Head of Commercial & Operations
First address water factory (VIEW WATER)
مجموع سنوات الخبرة :19 years, 4 أشهر
View Water is a premium water bottling company based in Riyadh, providing customers with the lowest sodium water in Saudi Arabia.
Strategy & Leadership:
• Leading and planning all trade sales, marketing, and business development strategies, focusing on projects in procurement and production to ensure the complete turnaround of business results
• Leading, mentoring, and managing a team of seven direct reports in Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dammam, including regional management, sales, procurement, and logistics
• Increased sales by 25% to SAR7.5m per month by restructuring route-to-market (RTM) and implemented operational fundamentals, focusing on high profitability channels and private labels
• Significantly improved cash cycle and reduced need for time spent collecting bad debt by moving from credit to cash sales, enabling the purchase of raw material and stock >30 days in advance compared to hand-to-mouth
• Participating in board meetings, working closely with executive leadership to develop and manage effective sales & marketing plans
Operations:
• Improved raw material purchase prices, reducing costs by SAR2m by identifying strategic failings in the procurement process, including implementing supplier agreements to lock in conversion costs
• Restructured the overall supplier and RFP process to include minimum quotations, communicating a clear production plan to avoid any supply shortages and scheduling any overdue payments to guarantee the raw material pipeline
• Designed and implemented RTM in cash van operations, with clear daily journey plans for each salesman and additional governance through the introduction of a handheld terminal and software
• Introduced clear sales KPIs and daily, weekly, and monthly objectives, working closely with the team to upskill and improve their performance and motivate them to hit new incentive schemes
Business Development:
• Increased reach of home channels from 120 active home delivery customers to 650 In 8 months, focusing on marketing and social media activations and promotions, improving gross margin by 2%
• Dedicated a special team for agents, exports, and private labels leading to granting deals with key customers, including Romansia, Ragheed, Tamimi, Al Nahdi Pharmacies, improving net profit by 20%
• Created a new segment of shrink-wrapped products, increasing sales by 5% compared to cartons
A major force in the import and distribution of household names within the FMCG Industry, Specialized Food Services (SFS) is BTIGs distribution arm and a leader in the food service industry in Saudi Arabia.
Strategy & Leadership:
• Led all hotel and catering industry (HORECA) sales and business development activities in KSA post-COVID-19, working on multiple new initiatives contributing to a 40% YoY increase in turnover
• Serviced all sub-segments, including fine dining restaurants, catering, cafes, hotels, bakeries, and quick service restaurants (QSR), with an annual turnover of SAR145m
• Managed, mentored, and motivated a team of 10 direct reports, including executive chefs, trade marketing managers, regional sales managers, and key accounts managers
• Enhanced the performance of key customers by focusing the sales team on expanding the product portfolio sold (e.g. increased sales to Hamburgini Burgers by 200% by capturing sales of mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard when previously only soybean oil was supplied)
• Developed and expanded key customer base by building and maintaining rapport and identifying new customers opportunities, including introducing blind visits to sales teams’ KPIs, resulting in a 20% increase in the number of key accounts per sales team member
• Management of the out-of-home channel across Saudi Arabia, including canned food, pasta, savouries, and other categories
Business Development:
• Increased reach of restaurants channel from 200 active restaurants to 800 In 7 months, focusing on food services (FS) related items, improving gross margin from 5% to 9% for several principals, leading to an increase in gross profit by 15%
• Achieved the highest annual sales since the start of SFS, optimizing trade spending to improve gross profit by 5%
• Dedicated a special must-stock list (MLS) by channel focusing on high margins and FS-related SKUs, increasing gross margin by 5%
• Reduced cost of workforce by execution of ‘double hatting’ approach, saving SAR200K in Y2021
• Successfully launched Rama Professional Creams with an increment of SAR2m in additional sales
• Introduced Soybean oil private label, which generated incremental sales of SAR5m
Leading all sales & business development activities In KSA post massive restructuring, offering cross - functional support to a wider senior leadership team working on multiple projects to ensure the complete turnaround of business results. Managing SAR 700 Mil TO and 15 managerial direct reports.
Key Responsibilities & Achievements:
• Strategically and operationally responsible for all sales and business development activities in KSA following a significant restructuring, offering cross-functional support to the senior leadership team to drive sales across a portfolio with an annual turnover of SAR700m
• Key team member in achieving a significant business turnaround from an annual loss to an annual profit of SAR36m in two years
• Led a team of 15 managerial direct reports, maintaining total P&L responsibility for both General Trade and Modern Trade, including heading top-to-top negotiations
• Developed detailed Annual Operating Plan (AOP), assigning budgets and resources, improving RTM by installing robust systems and processes, and saving SAR14m by revising trade spending
• Reviewed and analysed sales results and market share, taking corrective measures to address trade channel profitability and spending efficiencies
• Drove new business sales and product introductions, including launching Walimah Style Sauces across key accounts, generating SAR5m incremental sales, and negotiating an exclusive rice deal with Romansia Restaurants for 30 outlets and a volume of 8, 000 MT
Headquartered in France, Lactalis is a family-owned company with a presence in around a hundred countries, with 80, 000 collaborators, a hundred brands, and 250 production sites.
Key Responsibilities & Achievements:
• Led Lactalis’ modern trade sales and business development activities for all dairy categories, managing five direct managerial reports for a territory sale of SAR350m
• Developed strategic customer relationships, providing senior support in negotiations to drive efficiencies and excellence in execution
• Introduced AOP profitability by customer, resulting in an improvement in marginal costs by 14%
• Dropped level of rebates by -4% resulting in SAR6m of savings
• Successfully launched President cream cheese, initially capturing 3% of market share from Kraft Philadelphia, which reached 7% in 3 months (Won 3rd place globally)
The Bel Group is a major player in the food industry through portions of dairy, fruit, and plant-based products and one of the world leaders in branded cheeses.
Key Responsibilities & Achievements:
• Joined the group during a distributor shift as a regional manager, then promoted to national channel manager (modern trade), leading Bel’s distributor and distributor's sales force worth SAR550m
• Led in the strategic management, negotiations, and relationships with the distributor to drive investment guidelines and maintain agreed stock-holding levels and shipments
• Conducted quarterly and yearly business reviews with the distributor, including the RTM assessment and evaluation
• Directed modern trade (key accounts and self-service), contributing to 65% of Bel’s business KSA
• Effectively executed modern trade strategies to deliver top and bottom-line growth, including reducing costs relating to key accounts by more than 13%, resulting in a saving of SAR25+ mil
• Introduced profitability by account and full P&L for the total channel
• Rationalized the number of SKUs in KA, resulting in an increase in sales by 6% and improved visibility for key moving SKUs
• Delivered excellence in execution, including building over 300 mega displays for Ramadan annually
• Attained high branch growth for Bel and Arrow in market sales and shipments. (Y’10 to Y’12) with an average annual vol. growth of 5%
Unilever is an industry-leading British multinational consumer packaged goods with 148, 000 people and over 400 brands in 190 countries.
Key Responsibilities & Achievements:
• Managing category sales trade plans across all trade channels and overseeing execution with the distributors across Saudi Arabia
• Analysed and developed customer and shopper insights, translating into business-building opportunities with specific customers and channels (e.g., AC Nielsen)
• Develop an excellence-in-store activation program, aligning with the account managers on the picture of success
• Supported the annual account joint business planning through data analysis and opportunity identification
• Worked closely with the sales teams’ account and channel-specific customer marketing plans to deliver brand objectives
• Prepared monthly and quarterly category plans for assortment, shelf layout, promotional strategy and price positions
• Conducted new product launch roadshows across KSA to align on distribution KPIs, shelving, pricing, multi-touch displays, and promotions
• Achieved the highest value share (46%) for Comfort in KSA to continue leading the fabric softeners category (AC Nielsen ’07 - ’08)
• Increased IMS for HC in KSA by 4% in 3 years, achieving the highest sales records for HC in 2007
• Managed the Chai Latte Instant Tea drink launch in KSA, with the results used as best practice for the region after achieving 3% of market share in the launch taken from the 3 in 1 category
Started my Career as Van Salesman for Gillette Product lines developing Distribution & Display, managed trade inventory in assigned areas. Promoted to Weighted Outlets Salesman & then to Key Accounts Sales Executive. After consistent delivery of sales & display objectives, in 2003, promoted as Key Accounts Supervisor for Jeddah.
Finished from Faulty of Business in Finance and banking