Wissam Sfeir

Producer of Poppins & Snips brands
Poppins is #1 Cereal brand in Lebanon, Leader in Levant & #3 player in Mena and sold in Over 30 countries worldwide.
Role Summary:
Managing the whole company through direct distribution company ‘Falco’ in Lebanon who have over 60 sales reps, 5 warehouses/offices and turnover of over $12 Mio and responsible for the international operation in addition to Marketing & Finance departments.
Achievements:
• Tripled the business in 3 years from $8 Mio to $24.5 Mio.
• Successfully Relaunched Poppins in KSA and doubled the market share from 4 to 8.3% market share (AC Nielsen) through micromanagement of top KA (Panda, Otheim, Lulu, Carrefour..).
• Changed the RTM & customer classification in Lebanon which optimized distribution & decreased the cost by $132K monthly.
• Modified the Profitability model for traditional trade in Iraq in cereal bars which led to tripling the turnover from $2.5 to $8 Mio in 2 years.
• Launched SNIPS brands from scratch: Labeling, legal packaging, flavors, marketing plans, pricing, …
• Created & executed Guinness World record event in 2016 to mark the relaunching of Poppins packs in Lebanon.
• Prepared & successfully executed Social Media plan which increased the total fans on Facebook to over 250K followers.
• Created & Applied SOPs for distribution management & internal processes that helped in minimizing costs & increased profitability.
• Successfully built & managed a sizeable international workforce and alongside initiated the marketing & finance department.
• Promoted mutually productive relationship with all our customers; played a pivotal role in setting standards for a win-win commercial partnership with all business partners.
Key Responsibilities:
• Prepare the annual corporate business plan, ATL/BTL and monitor progress through P&L & Sales results.
• Provide strategic advice and guidance to the chairman and the members of the board.
• Establish and maintain effective relationships with key customers, & relevant government dept. to exchange information and views.
• Manage all 360 Advertising campaigns & Social Media.
• Develop and maintain R&D programs to ensure that the company remains at the forefront in the industry.
• Retaining key focus on business development, driving sales and achieving all profit goals envisaged.
• Analyzing local market trends and competitor activity to identify business leads.

Managing 15 countries in Levant & North Africa with full P&L responsibilities through Direct Distribution model or Export business. Those countries are Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, S. Sudan & Libya.
Achievements:
• Grew the business 5 times for Region 4 which accelerated my personal career promotion and increased on ground team.
• Prepared & executed a 3 years strategic planning that led the business in Egypt to grow from 1 to 9.5 Million USD.
• Created a new product only for the Lebanese market & made the Rich biscuits segment in Mcvities strongly exist with 1 Mio+ T/O.
• Changed the route to Market in Jordan which made the business grow from 170 to 920 Tons (2012-2015).
• Rationalized the portfolio in Iraq to accelerate growth which reached over 3 Million USD in 4 years.
• Penetrating in new markets: Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Syria, Algeria, Libya & Sudan.
• Initiated the B2B channel with major international partners like Unilever, Kelloggs, … for co Promoting with their products.
• Managed directly various projects for products improvements.
• Received 2 Awards from top management on the performance.
• Conducted a 3 years strategic planning to align revenues growth with expansion needed.
• Reorganized the value chain (Price Structure- Value Chain) to balance profitability between Supplier-UB, distributors & trade.
Key Responsibilities:
• Prepare the annual business plans which included the primary sales (Ship), secondary sales (IMS), A&P Spending including ATL/BTL.
• Provide leadership and training to the distributor team.
• Manage & evaluate DNs and ensure its aligned with agreed ROI.
• Follow up on order, shipment, clearance from production until the goods reach the warehouse & then the trade.
• Responsible for all brand management along with Trade marketing.
• Follow up with all P2M (Product to Market) projects related to R4.
• Responsible for reading and analyzing dist. reports along with AC Nielsen and propose activities to rectify the situation when needed.

Role Summary:
Managed 4 BUs with $60M+ turnover, 4 Business heads, 13 ASMs, 2 Trade Mrk, and over 150 salesmen.
BU1- Confectionary: Modelez, Lindt & Vicenzi.
BU2- Food: Afia(Savola), Maling, Café Najjar, Maling, & Heinz.
BU3-Beverage: Baccardi Martini, Dewars, Almaza, Amstel, Cointreau, Piper Hiedsieck.
BU4- Horeca / Out of home
Achievements:
• Launched successfully Oreo biscuits in addition to other skus like SMS wafer, Krikita nuts, Lindt chocolate….
• Established the business with Duty Free.
• Creating a daily reporting system to manage the remote sales.
• Restructured the company to increase salesman profitability through new journey plans and calls cycles.
• Established the Sub-Distributor Model in 2 major areas and generated over 4 Million USD yearly turnover.
• Reworked on Portfolio & Skus rationalization to minimize expiries.
Key Responsibilities:
• Profit & Loss Management along with Sales, Ordering & Stock Management
• Recruitment & Training, AR control, Branch Supervision, Suppliers relation, Trade Contracts, Dealers mgnt, Coverage plan implementation, Cash Flow management, Strategic planning, Business expansion supervision…in addition to close relation and management for all support functions like HR, finance, accounting, IT, warehouse.

Responsibilities include: Design & implementation of Business & Marketing plan, Increasing efficiency of sales team, Boosting Numeric & Weighted distribution, Channel mix strategy execution, Managing all BTL activities, Coordination with principals on ATL plans, Recruitment & training for the team (Sales & Mrk), AR & Stock level management, Rolling forecast management with SM…
Operation was split into 3 units and each one has its own brand & National Sales Manager.

Portfolio of Brands: Reckitt Benkiser, Johnson & Johnson, Vileda, SNCI, Braun, Duracel, & Karcher

Directed team of 3 Brand managers, 3 National Sales Manager, & over 100 Salesman. Led collaborative review and restructuring of all the division that tripled the bus in 2 years. Increased the turnover from $4 Mio to $14 Mio. Assigned to work on SOPs for Sub-Distributors & sales operation.
Led the credit committee for all trade channels. Reduced inventory turns from 84 days to 45 days. Created monthly scorecard to enable management to track progress.
Created order-checking procedure that improved accuracy of delivery orders by 90%.
Received numerous letters and awards for outstanding Results (Fastest start, Camel Trophy, ..)
Chosen to participate on payroll conversion for all the company team & job Mapping.
Reworked on Portfolio & Skus rationalisation to accelerate growth Designed a new process of stock management that reduce utilised area in the warehouse.
Worked with factory of the suppliers on the manufacturing of selective SKUs to local market.

Responsibilities include: Implementation of Product Mix strategy (Channel & dealer wise), Increasing efficient in coverage, Managing directly Travel retailer(Duty Free) & B2B (Government, Car dealers....), Organizing Road Shows & seminars, Participating in local Exhibitions, Market monitoring (Sell out data, Market Stock Level & Price Charts), Executing the Sony World concept, Creating the Shop In Shop concept in Virgin Stores in Lebanon, ATL activities management, Flyers & booklets preparation, ... Full P&L management.
Portolio of brands: Sony & Aiwa

Leading the sales operation with marketing responsibilities. Established the work with B2B channels, & Duty Free. Preparing yearly campaigns with Ad agencies (ATL, BTL)
Moved the business of Car Audio from 200K to over 1.5 Mio USD.
Responsible for opening Sony Worlds Showroom in Lebanon.
Recruited & trained all the indoor & outdoor salespersons.

Responsibilities include: Managing appointed distributors, Planning & Coordinating Stock ordering process, Planning & Executing Annual business plans, Adaptation of Plan o Gram as per the region, POSM creation, Managing stock Level at both distributors & dealers warehouses, Working on profitability model for distributors, Organizing price structures, Parallel importation control, Organizing front office operation to reduce the costs (logistics, clearance, Transportations..), Fully charged of BTL& ATL activities.
Portfolio: Mister Potato Crisp

Responsibilities include: Placing orders, Collecting due invoices, Enhancing visibility, Preparing Monthly reports (competitors’ activities, retail prices, …), Negotiating visibility deals and yearly contracts, Managing the work of the Merchandisers, Managing top customers directly (Carrefour, Coop, Spinneys, Choithram, LuLu, ...)
Portfolio: P&G, Mars, Clorox, ItalPizza, Warner Lambert, S&W, McCain, Klim, Tanmia...