Vergis Koshy

Responsible for the Business strategy and delivering competitive growth in General Trade: Long term planning for HUL Portfolio in Channels and identifying levers that will help deliver the long-term growth vision. This covers, Grocers, Wholesale, Beauty, Pharma and Expert Channels.

Market beating growth: Crafting Growth Action Plans with Customer Strategic Planning (CSP) teams to capitalize on opportunities ensuring competitive winning in GT Channel. Deliver consistently all quarterly plans, winning in marketplaces, deploy market share gain plans for business portfolios.

Responsible for Branch Customer Marketing Teams: Act as the critical interface between Central Category Trade Marketing and Regional Customer Marketing Teams to deliver exceptional trade and shopper activations. Drive impactful outcomes by integrating the optimal mix of categories, geographies, and shopper channels. Ensure seamless execution of "Win in New India" strategies with precision and effectiveness.

Channel Design & Strategy: Design Channels basis, Portfolio First thinking, Identification of Right to Win Channels, Crafting Key Jobs to be done basis Shopper and Pack Strategy to win at Point of Sale.

Launch Management: Spearhead end-to-end product launch execution, overseeing operational processes for both new product introductions and renovations. Ensure seamless distribution and last-mile tracking to drive efficiency and success.

Leveraging Technology for Competitive Advantage:Develop a comprehensive end-to-end tech stack encompassing sales operations, consumer technology, and omni-channel shopper journeys. Collaborate closely with the Centre of Excellence (COE), CD IT, and Marketing teams to establish a robust competitive moat.

Coaching and Development: Coaching and Leading Managers to building new age skills and capabilities.

Partnerships & Alliances: Establish and scale strategic partnerships to drive incremental profitability. Lead and execute Joint Business Planning with customers, aligning on objectives and performance metrics. Generate actionable insights to unlock growth opportunities and manage the financial aspects of Partners for sustained success.

Business Delivery: Achieve market-leading growth by delivering exceptional execution of critical sales metrics and decisively capturing market share.

Cluster Category & Sales Operating Plans: Lead category planning efforts and execute key objectives. Collaborate with supply chain partners to optimize stock planning and ensure delivery of category growth targets.

Customer Infrastructure: Build and expand the sales infrastructure and distribution network. Oversee Joint Business Plans with partners, address administrative activities, and enhance distribution through gap analysis and strategic planning.

Category Development: Execute world-class product launches, driving rapid growth in Value Weighted Distribution. Monitor market share trends and implement strategies to achieve share gains.

Capability Building: Develop and implement new business models, digitize operations, and lead change management initiatives to drive organizational evolution.

Team Leadership & Development: Lead a team managing a large distributor and reseller sales force. Focus on coaching, mentoring, and developing team members to achieve peak performance.

• Liaised between senior management and front-line team members to implement effective changes and revitalize Unilever market growth.
• Achieved sales goals and service targets by cultivating and securing new stakeholder relationships.

Future-Proofing Sales in South Asia: Build and deploy capabilities in General Trade for Home & Personal Care and Ice Cream categories, focusing on sales automation, new business models, store expansion, Go-to-Market strategies, trade service optimization, and distributor management to ensure sustained competitiveness.

Program Management: Oversee and execute large-scale business transformation initiatives to digitize General Trade and safeguard it against digital disruptions.

Stakeholder Management: Collaborate with key stakeholders to ensure seamless implementation of programs that future-proof markets.

Change Management: Lead organizational transformation by aligning diverse stakeholder groups, conducting Change Impact Assessments, and implementing effective communication strategies, training programs, and engagement initiatives to drive adoption and overcome resistance.

Process Improvement: Identify opportunities for business enhancement and design innovative, simplified solutions to optimize processes and deliver value.

Key contributions:

• Distributor Management Soln.: Designed and deployed new age Distributor Management Solution with digital order-capturing technology in key countries in South Asia, allowing distributors to efficiently manage Order to Cash operations, providing strong processes, financial controls and transparency across the sales value chain.

• B2B e-Commerce: Designed and deployed B2B e-Com models in countries, providing them capabilities to ring-fence existing coverage, thus offering a convenient and strong CRM and/or expanding the direct reach to those which were earlier undoable.

• Selling through advanced analytics: Implemented data analytics that provides selling recommendations to salesmen for cross-selling, up-selling and effectively spending time in an outlet that drive higher sales growth.

• Capability building: Developed content for capability building of Sales Executives, covering areas such as right choice of Go to Market models, setting up distribution network, identify area potential, crafting joint business plans and Channel management.

• Sales execution: Drive distribution of products and categories, upselling and cross selling to Retailers, etc. Ensure promotions reach targeted Retailers to improve distribution, trade stock levels, etc.

Responsible for managing Home Care, Personal Care and Foods & Refreshments businesses for North Tamil Nadu including Chennai Metro, Pondicherry, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, through a network of 55+ Distributors spanning 30,000+ Stores in General Trade. Managed a team of 16 General Trade Executives and 2 Channel Specialists.

Largest sales area in South Branch, with an annual sales turnover of 900 Crores and the largest sales area nationally for Foods & Refreshments with an annual sales turnover of 240 Crores.

Key responsibilities:

Sales Planning: Responsible for strategic sales planning, delivering overall growth and market share for the area. Quick identification of shortfalls and/or opportunities in activities and sales and subsequent remedial actions.

Performance Management: Performance of the total allocated team and its individuals, striving to improve team productivity and significantly surpass agreed sales and other KPI targets.

Managing Stakeholders: Collaborating with Supply Chain Planners, Brand & Trade Category Managers, and Sales Operations Manager to secure strategy implementation outlined for meeting annual growth plans.

Coaching & Team building: Onboarding new recruits, acting on non-performers – coaches, counsels, supports, and when needed, terminates. Accountable for continuous improvement of team selling skills and product knowledge. Building and fostering a team culture that values, recognizes and generates a business oriented, customer focused high performance.

Key contributions:

· Chennai Metro Distribution Model (2015): Designed and executed a strategic roadmap optimizing distributor size, strategic city locations, and key high-growth geographies.

· Trade Mix Restructuring: Revamped the trade mix for laundry bars in Tamil Nadu, paired with a refreshed sales pitch, driving a 1.3x volume increase in a single month.

· Self-Service Store Programme: Developed and piloted a Self-Service Store model across 250+ stores in Chennai and Coimbatore. This included deploying visibility assets, planogramming, and in-store promoters based on shopper and category insights.

· Pondicherry Sales & Marketing Plan: Created and implemented a targeted sales and trade marketing strategy using the "Win in Many Indias" (WiMi) framework, delivering 300 BPS higher growth than other markets.

· Cost-Efficient Go-to-Market Model: Deployed a growth-focused Go-to-Market model in Chennai Metro within three months, achieving a TTS saving of 13 BPS per month.

· Retail Coverage Expansion: Established coverage for 7,000+ stores and introduced a tele-calling order booking model. This approach became the backbone for a kiosk outlet coverage expansion project nationally across major cities.

Led the Home & Personal Care and Foods & Beverages portfolio worth ₹200 Crores annually through a network of 40 distributors across North Tamil Nadu. Led a team of 10 Sales Executives.

Key Responsibilities:

Sales Planning: Developed and executed monthly/quarterly plans, monitoring sales volume, value growth, and market share performance.

Driving Distribution:Expanded numeric and value-weighted distribution of key brands.

Distributor Management:Oversaw distributor profitability, crafted Joint Business Plans, and onboarded new distributors.

Capability Building: Trained distributor teams and Sales Executives on selling and negotiation skills.

New Launches: Implemented micro-marketing programs and executed key product launches at points of sale.

Growth Initiatives: Identified growth drivers, expanded store coverage, and introduced new categories in existing outlets.

Key Achievements:

Awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the Executive Director (Customer Development) for creating an online RS Management Training Module for the sales force.

Recognized with the Best Execution Award by the Executive Director for increasing retail outlet coverage from 24,000 to 31,000 stores.

Honoured as the Best Performer in Sales & Execution by the General Manager (Customer Development).

Rated as a top tutor for Management Trainees, earning consecutive commendations from the GM (Training & Development).

Oversaw the planning, monitoring, and daily operations of a contraceptive production unit, ensuring maximum output, minimal defects, and zero unplanned downtime. Managed a team of 3 Supervisors and 20 Plant Operators.

Plant Setup: Successfully established a Surgical Suture Plant in collaboration with a South Korean company, managing the project from design to implementation and handing it over to the production team within nine months.

Maintenance Scheduling: Coordinated monthly and annual maintenance schedules with the Engineering Department to ensure uninterrupted operations.

Inventory Planning & Control:Forecasted and managed inventory based on customer orders to maintain optimal stock levels.

Audit & Compliance: Ensured adherence to ISO 9001:2000, ISO 14001:2002, ISO 18001 standards, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), and 5S methodologies.

Process Improvement: Conducted trials, implemented process modifications, and introduced new machinery and chemical substitutions to enhance production efficiency.

Performance Analysis: Utilized Six Sigma tools to analyse operations and improve product quality and efficiency.

Key Achievements:

• Developed a business plan to outsource secondary packaging operations, increasing capacity and optimizing costs.
• Represented HLL Lifecare Ltd. at the QC Circle – Regional Finals organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).