Pooja Rawat

Brand Management:
• Heading the Inglot business for MENA Region (UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain & Egypt) covering 80+ Stores for Apparel Group
• Responsible for the end to end P&L Management of Inglot - spanning from strategic planning to execution
• Ensuring delivery on all core KPIs: Sales, Gross Profit %, Average Ticket Value, Conversion, Average Selling Price, Weekly Stock Cover and cost control
• Directly managing a team of 20+ Back End & front ends teams (Merchandisers, Graphic Designers, Inventory team, Trainers & Retail Area Managers across GCC)
• Conceptualizing and executing brand marketing campaigns through ATL, BTL & Digital media and blogger tie-ups in line with each country’s requirement & guidelines
• Sync marketing calendars of principal with country retail calendar, seasonality, customer profile, geography mix and targeted positioning
• Overseeing the inventory management function in line with the brand targets and ensuring high inventory turns
• Planning & Developing new launches for the GCC Market in line with market trends
• Mapping geography expansion plan - evaluating store viability and new store opening execution
• Actively part of recruitments for store teams & operations team for Inglot

Key Performance Highlights:
• Turned around inventory performance for the brand in 2017, bringing down overall inventory levels by over 40% while ensuring top-seller stock cover as per norms, with sales not compromised, thus increasing stock turns & profitability
• Launched Inglot in leading e-commerce chains in UAE in 2017 thereby adding valuable inorganic business
• Launched Inglot in Egypt market with 4 stores in 2017, provided expertise in marketing & store execution, thereby enabling over 100% delivery of core KPIs
• Identified core category leadership areas & enabled competitive pricing for them in line with market benchmark, thereby improving average selling price & gross profit
• Tied up with Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing (DTCM Dubai) to develop an exclusive collection for DSF only available in Dubai

Category Strategy and Brand development:
• Handling Cosmetics and Fragrances for MENA Region (UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon) covering 175+ Stores in over 13 countries
(Dealing with all leading brands and their distributors viz. Maxfactor, Maybelline, Bourjois, Rimmel, NYX, Prestige, Gosh, Boss, D&G, CK, Davidoff, Lancome etc.)
• Formulating the Annual Business Plan for the category on a Regional (GCC) and territory wise level
• Responsible for margin increment by improvement of vendor mix, development of new product categories, centralized buying and process improvement
• Responsible for inventory analysis & management, assortment optimization, planograms and meeting all retail parameters successfully - viz. GMROI, GMROF, OTB, Ageing Stock & inventory control
• Vendor base management through active negotiation, maintaining healthy relations and optimizing current and new set of vendors, continuous vendor & product research
• Formulating and implementing the marketing plan for the category at GCC level in line with each country’s requirement and guidelines
• Responsible for development of Private Label strategy and vendor development of PL products across geographies

Key Performance Highlights:
• Achieved overall growth of 47% over last year, with a LFL growth of 38%. Transformed Cosmetics & Fragrances into the leading category in terms of relative contribution and growth for the organization
• Streamlined the vision and direction of the business across geographies for Lifestyle through continuous visits to all territories, business inputs and joint supplier meetings with territory teams
• Initiated & finalized Joint Business Plan with key partners in line with global best practices in retail
• Constant travel to GCC & International Markets (attended Cosmoprof in Italy and Hong Kong), to identify potential suppliers, fill assortment gaps and set new benchmarks in assortment & range planning & visual merchandising

Key Performance Highlights:
• Promoted consistently on basis of performance; and given added responsibility of the baby care business (worth INR 200 Million) on basis of previous performance track record
• Recognized as ‘Star of the Month’ 3 times for creating organizational impact
• Part of a team selected on merit, to participate in a Strategic Retail Management Program conducted at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad (FT Ranked top-15 global MBA schools) in 2011
Category, Vendor and Order Management:
• Formulate annual category business plan on a national level
• Responsible for meeting the top-line and bottom-line objectives of the departments handled.
• Responsible to devise category strategy in order to ensure least-cost sourcing by optimizing price discounts, buying cycle and vendor mix
• Conduct Joint Annual Business Planning with leading global suppliers (like HUL, P&G, L’Oreal etc) and national suppliers (like Dabur, Marico). Fully responsible to negotiate Terms of Trade Negotiations with suppliers’ leadership teams in Top-to-Top meetings
• Plan an effective assortment based on market trends, competition benchmark, external data available on market; apart from managing product launches for all brands at stores and taking care of the seasonal/ regional range.
• Plan the category modular based on store format, location and market needs
• Review and manage inventory, to ensure correct stock holding and keep unproductive inventory (UPI) and seasonal product exits in check
• Formulate effective pricing and promotion strategy based on market needs and format requirement
• Identifying market and competition trends in order to ensure optimal assortment, pricing and promotion
Marketing, Training, Operations Management:
• Marketing: Ensure seasonal activations are in line with category requirement
• Follow a 30-60-90 feature planning calendar to ensure all major events and promotions are planned in advance
• Responsible for all ATL and BTL communication for the division
• Training and Development: Ensure team members are regularly trained in order to build knowledge base
• Private Label Development: Responsible for ranging and designing relevant, competitive and high-quality Private Label under the Wal-Mart international brand name ‘Equate’
Trainings attended:
• Certificate course (6 months) in Strategic Retail Management from the prestigious Indian School of Business, Hyderabad
• Senior Leadership Program, Walton Institute (Wal-Mart)
• Situational Leadership Training from US-based trainers (Wal-Mart)
• High Impact Presentations by Dale Carnegie Training
• Management Development Series 201 (Wal-Mart)
• Franklin Covey: The Seven Habits For Associates
• Merchant Finance by Wal-Mart

Key Highlights:
• Was promoted twice in two years for consistent and high-quality performance
• Conceptualized the category right from its inception stages in Reliance Retail and was part of the core team of Reliance Lifestyle format
• Part of the key team which was involved with the launch of the largest Hypermarket in India (Reliance Mart, Ahmedabad )

Merchandising and Category Management:
• Sourced and merchandised color cosmetics, fragrances and skin care products
• Handled cross-format responsibility for category: Spreading across Value Format Retailing (Reliance Fresh, Mart, Super) and Lifestyle Retailing (Reliance Lifestyle - Timeout)
• Handled business plans, negotiations, vendor and contract management with all the FMCG brands present in Indian market
• Laid down the Standard Operating Principles (SOP) related to merchandising operations for the category
• Effectively managed cross-category promotions to increase bill penetration and category presence
• Extensively travelled across the country to various markets in order to study catchments, buying patterns and competitor analysis