PONNIAH ESAKKY
Vice President -Sales
Coimbatore South,TN
Summary
Dynamic sales leader with over 23 years of experience at PepsiCo India and Varun Beverages Limited, specializing in driving profitable growth and executing impactful sales strategies. Expertise in P&L management and fostering cross-functional collaboration, combined with exceptional organizational and communication skills to lead high-performing teams. Results-oriented professional skilled in stakeholder engagement and consulting on business processes, consistently delivering outcomes based on sound business judgment. Committed to achieving excellence and fostering a culture of success within the organization.
Overview
23
23
years of professional experience
Work History
Vice President-Sales
Varun Beverages Limited
Coimbatore
01.2024 - Current
- Handling a direct team of 2 Heads of Sales and 1 Senior Sales Manager, and an indirect team size of over 450, with a business turnover of $134 million as MUGM for TN.
- Responsible for delivering profitable volume and share for the beverages business in TN, TN emerged as one of the top three stronghold share markets for PepsiCo India and delivered a 15% CAGR volume growth in the last five years.
- Collaborated with senior management to develop strategic initiatives and long term goals.
- Enhanced company profitability by implementing strategic business plans, optimizing operational processes, and maximizing return on investments, thus delivering a 14% EBITDA for TN.
- Implemented advanced data analytics tools to drive data-driven decision-making across all levels of the organization, leading to better business outcomes, with over 70% business coverage on DMS.
- Build a strategic GTM road map for the unit, and identify opportunities to improve business process flows and productivity.
- Identified opportunities to improve business process flows and delivered gold-standard S&D KPIs, and sales productivity.
- Analyzed industry trends and tracked competitor activities to inform decision making.
- Managed large-scale projects and introduced new systems, tools, and processes to achieve challenging objectives.
- Cultivated company-wide culture of innovation and collaboration.
- Reviewed and analyzed reports, records and directives to obtain data required for planning department activities.
Head of Sales
Varun Beverages Limited
Coimbatore
05.2019 - 12.2023
- Responsible for delivering Volume and market share in South & Central TN
- Responsible for Delivering S&D KPI’s, Sales Productivity and grow Distribution Metrics
- Responsible for Driving Trade marketing and Visi execution
- Responsible to Plan and drive Trade spend within AOP Plans
Associate Director - Sales for Food and Beverages
Pepsico India
04.2018 - 04.2019
- Responsible to Deliver volume | Share in Central TN for Food-Frito Lay's and Pepsi Beverages
- Responsible for Delivering S&D KPI’s, Sales Productivity and grow Distribution Metrics
Sales Development Manager -Lay's and Pepsi Bev
Pepsico India
08.2016 - 03.2018
- Responsible for building a strategic roadmap for the TN and Kerala units for delivering revenue, share, and GTM cost lines as per AOP.
- Developed and implemented successful sales strategies to drive growth and exceed revenue targets.
- Responsible for delivering S&D KPIs, driving sales productivity, growing distribution metrics, and executing Visi.
- Streamlined sales processes for improved efficiency and faster deal closures.
- Optimized the sales funnel by analyzing key performance metrics and implementing data-driven adjustments.
- Developed a high-performing sales team through targeted coaching, training, and performance evaluations.
- Expanded market presence with diligent research and identification of new business opportunities.
- Facilitated cross-functional collaboration between sales, marketing, product development, and customer success teams for seamless execution of company-wide initiatives.
Manager - Sales
Pepsico India
08.2013 - 07.2016
Area Sales Manager -Prepaid | PCO
IDEA CELLULAR LIMITED
Tirunelveli
05.2011 - 07.2013
Accounts Development Coordinator
Pepsico India
07.2008 - 04.2011
Customer Executive
Pepsico India
03.2003 - 06.2006
Education
Bachelor of Science - Mathematics
Loyola College
Chennai, India 04.2001 -
Skills
Go-To-Market
P&L Management
Analytical decision making
Business Transformation
Sales strategy & Planning
Coaching and Mentoring
Process improvement
Results-driven
Sales and Marketing leadership
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
- PRESIDENT RING OF HONOR: Most Coveted award in the PepsiCo Universe Awarded for Best Performance in sales in Top 1% Performers in the Globe
- Varun Beverages Transition Champion Award : Awarded for Business transition in Tamilnadu
- PepsiCo India Region Best GTM Manager Award : Awarded for Implementation,sustenance of E-Routing & GTM optimization Exercise in TN
- PepsiCo India Region Impactful Initiative Award on GTM :Awarded for pioneering the integration of Food & Beverages business in TN
- PepsiCo India Region Ring of Honor Award :Awarded for Best Performance in India Region for Top10 Sales professional in India
- Manager of the year Award at State level for 3 Consecutive Years in TN
- PepsiCo MU Ring of Honor Award at Region Level : Awarded for best performance during CE Stint
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES
- SHIKHAR '2023 : An Top Talent leadership Program for potential leader tier in VBL across functions
- LeAD Potential Leader Program- 2017 : An Prestigious Leadership Program for potential leader Tier for top General Manager populations in India
- Participant of 'iLEAP 2016' -An Prestigious Leadership Program for Top 20 managers across functions in India from ISB-Hyderabad
- Accredited as a Sales Academy Graduate in Pepsico : An elite Academy of the top 20 sales echelons in PepsiCo India consecutively twice in 2007 & 2008
SPECIAL PROJECTS
SHIKAR Project on GTM : Market Share Gain | Mumbai | 2024
Worked Closely with Sales & Cross-Functional team and build strategies for improve market share in Mumbai city
Supply Chain Transformation Project | VBL India | 2023
Tamilnadu Supply chain Transformation ,Digitization project Delivering efficient business S&OP processes , Metric driven Control Tower Dashboard and Digital Demand Planning
Franchise Transition from PepsiCo to Varun Beverages Ltd | TN | 2019
Tamilnadu Business Transition from COBO to FOBO, Distribution Sustained without Business loss Team / Partners sustenance with
Power of One Integration [Food & Beverages] | 2016 - 2017
Tamilnadu Food and Beverages GTM Integration , Successfully Integrated P01 GTM for Snacks and Beverages , Boosted DBR viability through distribution increase in both Beverage and Snacks Category
Timeline
Vice President-Sales
Varun Beverages Limited
01.2024 - Current
Head of Sales
Varun Beverages Limited
05.2019 - 12.2023
Associate Director - Sales for Food and Beverages
Pepsico India
04.2018 - 04.2019
Sales Development Manager -Lay's and Pepsi Bev
Pepsico India
08.2016 - 03.2018
Manager - Sales
Pepsico India
08.2013 - 07.2016
Area Sales Manager -Prepaid | PCO
IDEA CELLULAR LIMITED
05.2011 - 07.2013
Accounts Development Coordinator
Pepsico India
07.2008 - 04.2011
Customer Executive
Pepsico India
03.2003 - 06.2006
Bachelor of Science - Mathematics
Loyola College
04.2001 -