Category Head - Bakery/Dairy & Frozen Segment

Purpose of the Role: Category Head - Bakery, Frozen & Dairy is an empowered leadership role responsible for the end-to-end P&L, sourcing, and merchandising strategy for our highest-frequency, cold-chain-dependent categories. You will design and execute Pan-India merchandising plans across all business formats (Supermarkets, Hypermarkets, and Omnichannel) to deliver aggressive sales growth, margin expansion, and market-leading inventory turns. Given the short shelf-life and temperature-sensitive nature of these lines, you will play a pivotal role in balancing high product availability with aggressive spoilage and shrink control. Responsibilities: 1. Strategic P&L & Category Leadership: - End-to-End P&L Ownership: Own and deliver the top-line sales, gross margins, and profitability targets for the Bakery, Frozen, and Dairy portfolios across all regions and formats. - Category Vision: Formulate annual, medium-term, and long-term business plans. Set clear strategic direction for Category Managers and Assistant Category Managers to ensure alignment with overall organizational goals. - Commercial Terms (TOT): Lead high-stakes Joint Business Planning (JBP) and Terms of Trade (TOT) negotiations with major national FMCG brands, dairy cooperatives, and regional vendors. 2. Assortment, Local Sourcing & Cold Chain Excellence: - Localized Assortment & Hyper-Local Sourcing: Curate a winning product mix that balances national bestsellers, high-margin regional dairy/bakery brands, and emerging artisan/D2C options tailored to regional palates. - Wastage & Shrink Management: Enforce stringent quality, handling, and cold-chain standards from vendor sourcing to the point-of-sale to aggressively reduce spoilage, waste, and markdowns. - Supply Chain & Availability: Partner closely with supply chain teams to optimize inventory turns, adhere to Working Capital (WC) norms, and drive vendor fill rates for high-velocity, short-shelf-life SKUs. 3. Pricing, Promotion & Private Label Expansion: - Price Perception & Promotions: Plan and execute competitive pricing and promotional calendars to build strong consumer price perception while protecting category margins. - Private Label Execution: Collaborate with internal brand teams to drive the strategy, development, and in-store positioning of high-margin Private Label products in Bakery and Dairy. - Process Compliance: Drive standard merchandising processes to ensure total compliance with FSSAI regulations, food safety standards, and statutory requirements across all stores. Knowledge / Education: - Education: MBA from a Tier-1 or Tier-2 institute. - Experience: 10-15 years of post-MBA experience in Category Management, Sourcing, and Merchandising within Retail, E-Commerce, Quick-Commerce, or FMCG sectors. - Domain Expertise: Proven track record in managing perishable, temperature-sensitive, or high-velocity categories (Dairy, Bakery, Frozen, or Fresh) at a Pan-India scale. - Team Leadership: Demonstrated capability in leading, mentoring, and managing high-performing teams of Category Managers in a fast-paced environment. Competencies: - Cold-Chain & Perishable Acumen: Deep operational understanding of short-shelf-life economics, shrink control, and cold-chain logistics. - Commercial & Negotiation Mastery: Exceptional vendor management skills with a history of driving win-win TOT agreements. - Analytical & Data-Driven: Strong capability in analyzing sales metrics, elasticity, markdowns, and inventory turns to make high-stakes commercial decisions. - Shopper Obsession: Deep understanding of regional food habits, consumer buying patterns, and merchandising triggers in fresh and frozen foods.