Biju Nambiar

Managing the total business of Unitra (Red Bull distribution) & METS (Capri sun, Kitco, San Pellegrino and other top brands) of Abu Dhabi & Al Ain territory for all channels with a total turnover of 58 million PA. Heading the territory with 60 Plus headcount.

Lead and Manage the Team of Sales Executives, Van Salesmen and Merchandisers to achieve business objectives daily.

Responsible for effectively managing all channel partners at head office - ensuring to attain company goals, objectives & targets through Trade & Visibility Agreements on new products, listings, shelf space, promotions, or any other special deals. Responsible to ensure all Visibility agreements are in place.

Key Account Management, Collaborating Joint Business Plan with Key customers & closely monitoring stock assortment issues, promo planning, business review & relationship development.

Monitor and Review effectiveness of all Trade Activations, Coverage, Numeric/ Weighted Distribution and Trade Service Levels.

Make sure all the sales fundamentals like MSL compliance, route plan adherence, the share of shelf tracking, increasing & maintaining, and service levels are followed & not compromised.

Planning & executing all monthly promotions by market, monitoring the promo executions & making sure all the running promotions are profitable.

Collaborating with regional stakeholders on the listing, promo planning, availability, & lead / finalizing of BDA with all major retailers.

Manage Collections from all Credit & Cash Customers, Evaluate Credit limits and recommend changes of any based-on customer performance and payment history and forecast.

Ensuring merchandising KPIs are achieved through the team, ensure all orders are delivered on time and all undelivered orders both cancelled or pending are investigated and corrective actions have been taken.

Major Achievements:

Successfully implemented a new route plan for MT / TT & Vans to increase the effective coverage.

Increased 42 % in numeric distribution by adding 420 new stores in van distribution.

Successfully brought van operations into BREAK-EVEN by increasing 35 % in business.

Successfully maintained the status quo for all BDA contracts of 2020 in the MT channel.

Successfully negotiated & closed 2020 joint business plan with Carrefour at 34 % less than the competitor and obtained Free National Promotions.

Maximized the R O I of all rentals (primary) outlets/groups by re-evaluating the spending and optimized the budgets by taking corrective actions.

Role & Responsibility:

Successfully handled AED 42 million business annually pan UAE, with Kimball,
Weetabix, Klassno, Dano & other brands.

Responsible for Sales & Distribution target achievement.

Team: Oversee a team of four sales supervisors, eighteen salesmen & twenty-nine
merchandisers, one sales coordinator & one finance coordinator. Total headcount 53.

Monthly Business Review (M B R) - with brand owners/ sales team/trade marketing &management.

Sales & Business Analysis: sales & distribution performance by Route/ Channel/ Customer group/Door and take corrective actions. By Brand / SKU wise deep dive to understand the gaps.

Trade Marketing: Managing trade spends & budgets to ensure optimum ROI. tracking of A&P budgets by aligning with band owners. Periodic evaluation of permanent displays. Promo planning by Quarter for MT business.

Key Account Management: Develop long term relationships. Plan promotions, negotiation on BDA, business review quarterly, monthly visits to the HO for the follow-ups and, general talks.

Responsible for ensuring all visibility & trade agreements are in place and being implemented accordingly.

Team Management & Market intelligence: Regular visits to the market along with the team and review market activities/ category trends/ competitor activities & shifts and to train & motivate the sales team in the field.

Stock Management / AR Review / Supplier Debit note: Monthly SSOF planning, AR review & reconciliation with sales team & credit control department. Reconciliation of supplier (Brand owners) Debit notes monthly & quarterly.

Major Achievements:

Successfully closed 2018 with a 5 % growth in chocolates & biscuits.

Increased the NUMERIC distribution in Traditional Trade by adding new outlets.

Reengineered the Vans Sales RTM strategy to increase the coverage & drop size.

Successfully implemented PERFECT STORES concept across all selected stores.

Role & Responsibility:

Accountable for achieving Value targets, Distribution & Merchandising objectives through Six Sales Executives & 15 Merchandisers in TT channels.

Responsible to conduct market visits across the channels focusing on POP drivers, shelf life, competitor activities, and PERFECT STORE executions.

Conduct the Monthly Sales Review with the team & management & conducting the quarterly business review presentation with top customers.

Develops the selling abilities of his team in the unit through continuous training and coaching in the field. (e.g., Negotiation, persuasive skills, objection handling, etc.

Ensures "winning at the shelf" is a top priority and per-category plan-o-grams.

Achieved 22% Growth in 2014 vs. 2015 against 15 % Category growth.

Increased the Numerical DISTRIBUTION from 78% to 84%

Increased the Weighted DISTRIBUTION from 92% to 96 %

Won incentive trip to BRITANNIA FILM FARE AWARD in the month of December 2015 for achieving 22 % YTD growth.

Role & Responsibility:

Conducting strategic meetings and reviewing business with buyers of key retailers like:
EMKEGroup, AD Coop’s, KM Trading, Fresh N More Group, Fatima Group, Allam Group & Self-Service Outlets.

Ensuring Weighted & Numerical distribution to expand the regime of product portfolios.

Plan investments in top accounts & arrive at the right mix of Space hiring, Promotions
Activations to maximize ROI.

Drive team to achieve Sales Targets, Category Growth, Effective Coverage of Core SKU, and Attain Share of Shelf ahead of market share for faster sales growth in each key account.

Flawless execution of planned promotions by customer group in terms of quality & timeline.

Responsible for raising standards of sales and distribution in line with the senior management’s annual growth plan.

• Managing a team of 6 Merchandisers.
• Drive the sales and distribution target for the set of assigned agencies
• Conducting strategic meetings and reviewing business with buyers, and purchase managers of Key Retailers like ADCOOP, LULU, Carrefour, KM Trading, Fathima Group, Allam Group & Spinneys.
• Negotiate with purchase managers on space, promotions, price increases and new listings etc.
• Ensure the availability of all SKUs in all assigned outlets. Monitor availability of Stock at the company warehouse. Manage the expiry, rotation and returns in the market.
• Follow up and ensure delivery of all orders by the Logistics Team.
• Conducting weekly sales meetings with Merchandisers.
• Oversee the Merchandising activities to ensure the proper implementation of agency wise planogram and POS, stock rotations &expiry monitoring.

I worked as an Interim Sales Executive as part of my NIS Diploma program.

Gained first-hand experience in Route Sales, Range Selling, Sales Calls, Merchandising, and Utilisation of POS materials.