Appireddy Pamulapati

Specialization: Driving Productivity initiatives across the categories, by delivering innovative projects.

Industry: Consumer Products / FMCG

Working as Head of Innovations, R&D – Cross-category productivity, Primarily responsible for delivering innovative products by identifying/generating new categories across foods.

Delivering innovative products by identifying/generating new categories in foods.

• Establish an innovation team to support future business growth.
• Led innovative product solutions in new business categories.
• Leading innovations team in developing next-generation noodles seasoning formats (liquid and pasty).
• Successfully delivered the design phase for a project on pre and post-baked savoury filling for the extruded snacks.
• Managed cross-functional team and stakeholder communication, and oversaw product development from inception to implementation.
• Worked closely with compliance to ensure alignment across all new product initiatives.
• Developed training materials and delivered training sessions to Sales teams resulting in a 20% increase in deal size.
• Conducted market research and identified key customer insights resulting in the creation of effective messaging and sales collateral.
• Improved company processes and growth in guiding clients through technical projects.
• Identified and delivered business critical margin improvement initiatives which delivered a savings of INR 3.1 crores in 2023.
• Improved company processes and client guidance in technical projects
• Delivered business-critical initiatives generating INR 3.1 crores in savings.
• Delivered all procurement-initiated savings projects in the category, by validating alternate raw materials and alternate suppliers.
• Developed product roadmaps to help guide the development of new products.
• Coordinated marketing events for showcasing product and service offerings.

Specialization: New product development – Plant-based foods

Industry: Consumer Products / FMCG

Served as an Associate Director at Licious, responsible for formulation development and successful commercialization of key projects for the plant-based foods division (Uncrave Portfolio).

• Establish an innovation team in a robust Plant-based foods category to support future business growth.
• Leading innovation products solutions in new business categories.
• Leading on cost and complex reduction projects to improve GM, productivity, and quality of products.
• Developed a wide range of Plant-based meat products under the Uncrave brand.
• Created customized flavour blocks for plant-based meat applications.
• Designed and customized a separate commercial production line for plant-based products.
• Developed capability of dehydrated gravies and meal solutions.

Specialization: Plant-based Foods

Industry: Consumer Products / B2B

Worked as a Sr. Manager of Innovation & Applications in the plant-based foods division responsible for formulation development and successful commercialization of key projects for the plant-based foods division.

• Establish an innovation team in a robust food service category to support future business growth.
• Establishment of a new state-of-the-art innovation laboratory.
• Setting up a new state-of-the-art plant for plant products, which includes the HM extruder, and the external product forming.
• Developed a wide range of Plant-based meat products with multiple plant proteins.
• Leading innovation projects in new ingredients and product solutions in new business categories.
• Leading on cost and complex reduction projects to improve GM, productivity, and quality of products.
• Created customized flavour blocks for plant-based meat applications.
• Developed capability of dehydrated gravies and meal solutions.
• Designed and developed hi-protein products (Snacks, Speeds, Chocolate) for the export market (UAE),

Specialization: Savoury flavours and seasonings

Industry: Consumer Products / B2B

Worked as a Manager of Innovation & Applications in the savoury flavours and seasonings division responsible for seasonings creation based on customer briefs and flavours application in different products and successful commercialisation.

• Creation and commercialization of new flavour solutions and meat analogues seasonings using innovative and optimal culinary skills to provide an authentic meat experience.
• Development of vegan mozzarella and cheddar based on Givaudan vegan cheese solution technologies.
• Manages the development of Lab, Pilot Plant Scale prototypes and marketing of products to customers by their Brief, Taste Preferences and Cost-in-use Targets & Regulatory Limits.
• Independent Application Lead for Savory Prototypes Developments as per the brief: Worked on – Savoury and Snack products, Meat analogues, RTE, RTC food products, Fresh dairy products, protein masking projects for Givaudan’s Reactive Projects & Proactive Innovation Days for Key Accounts.
• Providing Technical troubleshooting for Givaudan’s potential customers in India & Bangladesh, for scale-up of their dairy products as and when required… Tasty bits, Good Dot, Raipur; Vista Foods, Taloja; Health kart, Noida; Square Foods, Olympic Foods, Bhasundra Foods Bangladesh; Britannia etc.
• Identify and develop new suppliers for new functional ingredients, food-grade dyes, seasoning powders, plant extracts, etc.
• Experiment with flavour combinations to create complex seasonings.
• Conduct and coordinate all activities associated with the NPD process based on RM selection, recipe design, laboratory testing, industrial testing, and FP study
• Together with the sales and marketing team, Givaudan reached new revenue targets in the financial year 2019 for the Savoury segment.
• Represented Givaudan (along with Marketing Head) for Innovation Day execution at Nestlé, ITC, Amul, Tasty Bits, Marico, (India) &Pran Foods, Akij, and Square Foods (Bangladesh).
• Co-collaborated in the design of UHT prototypes of vegetable proteins, air-dried noodles, and instant pasta seasonings.

Specialization: New product development –Seasonings, Bouillon paste, cubes, Culinary products

Industry: Consumer Products / B2B

Served as an Assistant manager of innovation at Unilever Thai Services Limited, Bangkok, Thailand responsible for formulation development and successful commercialisation of key projects for Savoury division (Unilever food solutions), Southeast Asia – Thailand, Singapore, Malasiya, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam.

• Led a country innovation team representing the SEAA region. 3 direct and 5 indirect employees.
• Understand consumer needs through technical observations in consumer home visits and translate consumer language into the technical submission on product development.
• Create gold reference recipes; co-create a dry and wet Savoury Seasonings product and baking solutions for different product sizes.
• Create and present a knowledge-based sales toolkit using product demos and product applications to demonstrate the benefits of the product.
• Design & Training, formulation training and the passion for food within the team.
• Increase gross margin through innovations and value improvement initiatives to achieve targeted annual savings.
• Interaction with external stakeholders (flavour houses, key ingredient providers and other technical partners) for innovation, renovation and adjacency work.
• Align with the brand development team in the overall brand design by promoting and winning brand attributes and enabling the timely delivery of innovations.
• Dealing with the Nutrition team and legal team in complying with the products with the country's local laws and regulations, aligning, and delivering the products as per company strategy.
• Developed demo guides and selling stories for the sales & marketing team through a focus on product benefit.
• Development and designing of recipes for various top dish applications for seasoning products and Baking solutions.

Specialization: New product development – Noodle, Soups, Pasta, Seasonings, Meal makers

Industry: Consumer Products / FMCG

Served as a Product Development associate at Hindustan Unilever Research Centre, Bangalore, responsible for formulation development and successful commercialization of key projects for Savoury division (KNORR and Unilever food solutions Portfolio), South Asia – India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

• Develop new concepts and present them to International clients- McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, Domino Pizzas, and Five Star Chicken.
• Developed a range of wet retort Indian gravies for the UFS India market viz. Onion Tomato Gravy, Makhani Gravy, White Gravy, Yellow Gravy and Sambar base.
• Partner with the R&D teams of McDonald's & Yum and provide support for implementing different products to fit their store/kitchen operations.
• Conduct product open stability tests and evaluate in both client locations.
• Formulated tomato-based wet sauces, and flavoured mayonnaise-based burger sauces for McDonald's & KFC.
• Create golden benchmark Products for various products and get professional validation through a qualitative focus group.
• Formulation development of innovation & renovation products for the HORE market - dry seasonings, soups, sauces, marinades & dry salad dressings & wet retort-based Indian gravy concentrates, mayonnaise-based sauces & ketchup.
• Engage in discussions and interviews with professional chefs to understand their product needs and come up with product solutions by presenting multiple product applications.
• Reducing consumer complaints and ensuring ‘Delivered quality of the products’ by evaluating market samples for quality standards and updating as well as supporting.
• Underwent training in McDonald’s, Pizza Hut & KFC store kitchens to understand the kitchen operations and kitchen environment.
• Technically solved the consistency issues in UFS (Unilever Food Solutions) soups, with added savings.