National Sales And Distribution Manager
Ali Gohar & Company - L'Oreal Division
Total years of experience :19 years, 3 Months
Reporting to the General Manager - Sales & Operations and was responsible for L’Oreal Sales Operations for both Modern Trade and General Trade. Responsibilities included:
• Sales Infrastructure Planning & Execution of Go-to-Market Strategy as per business plan.
• Develop and execute our Yearly Commercial Plan Customer wise for Modern Trade Customers.
• Close liaison with L’Oreal Team for planning, aligning & executing new product launches and channel strategies.
Achievements:
• Delivered 40% & 42% sales growth in two fiscal years respectively for L’Oreal business in AGC portfolio.
• Negotiated and finalized Joint Business Agreements for Modern Trade Customers and Global Key Accounts
• Reclassified and categorized Modern Trade segmentation and subsequently restructured Go-To-Market Game Plan to reach optimum number of customers with only 16% increase in Human Capital.
• Automated 4 branches with GPS enabled Hand Held Devices in top Metro Cities with real time activity report of Sales Team.
• Planned and Executed growth plans for Three 2nd tier cities to grow business by 50%+ to support national growth ambition of 40%.
Reported to the National Food Services Manager for Out Of Home sales, responsibility includes Food Services sales encompassing National Contractual Business, Direct Business Accounts and Sind Province OOH Distributions.
• Responsibilities include setting growth and expansion objectives, manpower hiring & maximizing profitability while delivering upon the targets for the business unit.
• Development of new Channels in Out-of-Home business; through new channel addition our objective is to get double digit growth on our UHT brands.
• Managing distributor operations with sales forecasting, order planning, claims management, route planning, van feasibilities and overall distribution feasibilities.
Achievements:
• Achieved 40%, 42% & 32% value growth over last year in 2011, 2012 & 2013 respectively for portfolio.
• Set-up and successfully launched distributor for Hyderabad operations - 2011 with growth trajectory of 50%.
• Inducted new channel of Industrial Canteens to capture business share from open milk category.
• Planned and Executed Tea Vending Operations in Karachi for powder milk category.
• Responsible for Category Management for Tea Whitening Liquid, Tea Whitening Powder and Dessert Topping Categories for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
• Provide Sales Team with Strategic Direction (Category Strategy) with understanding and analysis of Trade Channels / Segments / Geographies.
• Development and execution of Trade Marketing Activities for Categories by Channel / Segment / Geography.
• Champion the Visibility Strategy for the year, planning the execution in targeted months and getting execution done by Merchandising Team with excellence.
• Design, execute and monitor trade promotions in-line with Category Strategy, to develop sales channels and achieve yearly category sales objectives.
Achievements:
• Achieved the volume targets of 2010 and achieved Rs. 10 billion revenue mark.
• Achieved 42% volume and 45% revenue growth over last year same period in 2011 for portfolio.
• Reported to the General Manager - Trade Marketing. Worked as a Sales Planner for both Dairy and Ice Cream Divisions. Responsibilities included:
• Cycle Planning: Implement Brand, Category & Sales cycle activities by coordinating Cycle Planning Activities both for Dairy and Ice Cream businesses with RSMs and TCMs.
• Demand Planning: Management of Bottom UP sales forecast for short and midterm planning per SKU in agreement with sales channels. Dairy Division (33 SKUs) and Ice Cream Division (50 SKUs).
• Operations Planning: Implement brand planning and development strategies by leading Operational Planning Process both for Dairy and Ice Cream businesses.
• Special Sales Support Plan: Special plans to support Dairy Sales through, Display Drives, High End Retail Accounts engagement programs and wholesale focus programs.
• Retail Audit: Liaise with Nielson on Retail Audit Reports to monitor & Improve Sales Performance of distribution efficiency and its effectiveness.
Achievements:
• Achieved demand planning yearly targets of 2009 for Dairy (101% vs. target) and Ice Cream (103% vs. target).
• Successful Project Management in launches of Ice Cream 32-50 SKUs (2009-10), Tarang UHT 125 ml (2009), Tarang Tea Whitening Powder (2010), Juices & Nectars (2010)
• Worked on a diverse portfolio of Beiersdorf and BIC. Managed the full spectrum of NIVEA & BIC Brands.
• Implemented Global Trade Marketing Practices and owner of Trade planning for NIVEA & BIC in Pakistan.
• Responsible for Country Activity Calendars of NIVEA and BIC for consumer promotions on retail outlets and trade promotion schemes on retail and wholesale.
• Scheduling Merchandizing/Visibility related activities to establish Brand Image on retail outlets and also responsible for all activation initiatives for all the brands in field.
Achievements:
• Established Trade Marketing function in the company and training sales force on “Visibility” & “Availability” objectives and plans.
• Achieved Visibility targets for NIVEA and BIC on Key accounts and Karachi General Trade. In ME region Pakistan came 3rd for 2008 visibility targets.
• Closed Cycle Plan of 2008 with 89% planned activities.
Responsibilities:
• Headed the Trade Marketing Regional Team of Karachi, consisting of TSMs and Merchandisers.
• Brand portfolio was Marlboro, Red & White, Morven Gold, Diplomat and K2.
• Key responsibilities included Devising Regional Strategy, Planning and Implementing Trade Marketing Plan for the year, enhancing the retail platform through Merchandising Activities and monitoring Marketing Activities and Brand Activation in-line with National Strategy.
• Worked with Brand and Sales teams and assuring that all Brand Plans and subsequent activities are aligned to strategy and ensuring effective and efficient utilization of resources by developing Regional sales cycle calendars.
• Allocation and communication of priorities, objectives and targets to a Regional Sales Management Team of 3 District Sales Managers and 15 Area Managers based on Sales Cycle Calendar approved by Director Sales and Marketing.
• Executed Consumer Promotions on brands like; Marlboro, Red & White, Morven Gold and Diplomat.
• Awareness programs were made possible through On-store and In-store merchandising and POSM application along with various Activities.
• Monitoring of Regional Budgets in regard to expense and administering for merchandising and trade programs, along with vendor management.
• Key accounts in the region are to be handled with given targets of merchandising.
• Championed the Brand Strategies and Creative Pathways of the 3rd largest brand of the category ‘K-2 King Size Filter’ and ‘Royals King Size Filter’ Punjab’s leading Regional Brand
• Key responsibilities include devising brand strategy, planning and implementing brand plan for the year, Preparation of annual budgets and keeping liaison with National sales force.
• Developed the Brand Plans of K2 for 2 years (2006-07 and 2007-08) and Royals for 2007-08 and executed the Brand Plans of K2 for 2 years (2005-06 and 2006-07) and Royals of 2007-08.
• Coordinated with research department to conduct FGDs (focus group discussion), quantitative research, IDIs (in-depth interviews) and brand perceptual mapping. Other tools utilized for planning and decision making were Simulated Test Markets (Used for Royals New Pack Design), Brand Health Monitors, General Consumer Survey and Retail Audit.
• Redesigned the K-2 Concept and communicated it throughout the K2 selling areas.
• Launched Royals with New Pack Design in the region it is strong.
• Launched numerous National Consumer Campaign and Regional Consumer Campaign based on instant prizes, lucky draws, float and stall activity and musical shows in strong belts of K2 and Royals.
• Handling all aspects of the Sales Cycle Planning, Budget management as well as Product Improvements and New Product Development.
• Coordinated and interacted with media and advertising agencies to develop and implement brand communication strategy.
• Recommended Channel specific price positioning per SKU, price structure, rebates and margins.
• Sales Forecasting and Planning on 12 month basis.
• Handled a Brand Interns as part of the Lakson Tobacco Internship programs.
Majors in Marketing with Courses like Brand Management, Sales Management, Advertising, Consumer Behavior, Marketing Research, Export Marketing and Industrial Marketing
BBA (Honors) with courses including Advertising, Consumer Behavior and Marketing Research also Finance courses, Corporate Finance and Investment Banking
Intermediate courses done were Accounting, Economics, Principles of Commerce and Commercial Geography