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.