General Manager

Role Ownership :

The General Manager will have end-to-end techno-commercial responsibility for the supermarket/retail business, driving sales, profitability, operational excellence, supply chain, category management and expansion. The role requires strong commercial leadership with hands-on experience in food processing, bakery and fresh/perishable categories, while exposure to meat processing/butchery will be an added advantage.

Role Objectives:

PRIMARY/SHORT TERM:

1. Stabilize and optimize existing supermarket and food operations.
2. Improve sales, gross margin and store profitability.
3. Establish strong controls over inventory, shrinkage, wastage and expiry.
4. Improve availability of high-rotation SKUs and fresh products.
5. Strengthen bakery, fresh food, perishables and food-processing operations.
6. Establish product-wise yield, recipe/BOM, costing and production controls.
7. Optimize procurement and supplier terms.
8. Improve customer experience, merchandising and store standards.
9. Strengthen food safety, hygiene and quality systems.

10. Build a strong local operational and commercial team.

SECONDARY/LONG TERM:

1. Drive profitable expansion of the supermarket network.
2. Develop centralized food-processing capabilities where commercially viable.
3. Expand private-label and in-house manufactured food categories.
4. Build strong fresh-food differentiation through bakery, meat and perishables.
5. Develop category-wise profitability and assortment strategies.
6. Introduce ERP/POS-driven inventory, demand planning and replenishment.
7. Build leadership succession and localization.
8. Establish the business as a leading modern retail and food destination.

Duties & Responsibilities:

Retail & Commercial Management : Drive overall retail operations, sales, gross margin, store profitability and customer experience across the supermarket business.

Food Processing & Fresh Operations : Oversee bakery, food processing, fresh and perishable categories, ensuring productivity, quality, yield, freshness and wastage control.

Category Management & Merchandising : Drive product assortment, pricing, promotions, shelf productivity and category-wise sales and profitability.

Procurement & Supply Chain : Optimize sourcing, supplier negotiations, inventory, replenishment, warehousing and product availability while controlling working capital.

Financial & P&L Management : Own budgeting, forecasting, cost optimization, EBITDA and overall business profitability, including CAPEX and ROI management.

Quality, Food Safety & Compliance : Ensure strong food safety, hygiene, cold-chain and quality standards across stores, bakery, perishables and meat/butchery operations.

Expansion & Team Leadership : Lead new-store and business expansion while building a high-performing team with clear KPIs, accountability and talent development.

Desired Profile :

Qualifications : Bachelors degree in food technology, Food Science, Engineering, Operations,

Business Management or related discipline. MBA/PGDM preferred.

Experience :

• 1520 years overall experience, preferably with minimum 5 years in senior leadership in a

supermarket/hypermarket/large food-retail environment.

• The candidate should ideally have a combination of: Supermarket/Retail + Food

Processing/Manufacturing + Fresh/Perishable Categories

• Hands-on exposure to commercial/P&L management, procurement, category management

and retail operations is essential.

Preferences :

• Experience managing multiple stores or a large-format supermarket operation is preferred.
• Experience in bakery manufacturing/production is highly preferred.
• Experience in meat processing, butchery or fresh-meat operations is preferable.
• Africa experience is strongly preferred, particularly experience operating in developing/emerging

markets with imported supply chains, infrastructure constraints and multicultural teams

Preferred Industry Background :

Large Supermarket / Hypermarket Chains with In-house Food Production Or Food Retail Groups Operating Supermarkets + Bakery + Fresh Food + Meat Processing