Nandita Panwar

• Successfully launched prepackaged Donut program in Superstore with substantial Labour savings.
• Rationalized our Cookie portfolio with right assortment.
• Launch of six pack cupcakes and four pack Muffins within our Value segment.

Extension of Party Platter Programme- Working on a project to take our current Party Platter programme to next level to become a leader in this segment in the market.

Top of Cases and Landini Racks- Optimizing this space with basket builders which are trade up for the category. This is a great way to get incremental sales to the category.

Olive Carts- Ensuring we have the best offering of olives in our stores with an expanded 3 pan carts rolling out to stores to capture maximum sakes from this segment.

Rebuilding Tofu Segment- As this segment is picking up, ensuring we have the right space and assortment to support the growing category.

Rationalizing Vegan and Meat/Cheese Alternative Category-It is important to be ahead in the curve for the innovation but balancing the segment with right core items and layering that with innovation to keep up in this portfolio.

• Promo Planning and Shelf -Ensuring we are investing right amount of money in the category to drive sales and maintaining the balance with the shelf sales. Investing is not the right strategy everytime that's why focusing on proper store displays, providing regular store level sale updates and highlighting our key programmes with the specialists is a key to win.
• Sales, Margin, Market Share, O&A, Inflation/Deflation- Focusing on these key parameters to ensure our Category is winning in all areas is the key and for Deli cheese- I have ensured that we are checking our boxes on all fronts.
• Key Programmes- As Deli cheese is a category where innovation and new ideas is the key, I have focused on putting together great Easter/Thanksgiving and Christmas programmes along with our cheese of the month promotions where stores can focus on one big item and build proper displays with proper execution guides.
• Decision Making and learning Leadership skills- I always believe that if you keep customer at your heart and will think about what they need to see at a store level- You always make the right decision. With that in mind, i have taken key business decisions for our category to help drive more sales and also to do what is right for consumers. My key focus is also to acquire leadership skills which will help me in my career ahead that's why i have presented in different forums and took responsibility of the decisions.
• People Management- As that's a key to become Category director, My manager gave me an opportunity to independently manage our AM and have regular monthly one on one connects to understand people's aspirations and guide/help them.

• Weekly ad planning- Planning weekly ads based on the marketing themes, time of the year, market sensitivity and the financial targets
• Developing winning programmes- Always looking out for more options to drive profitable sales, CTO’s, Buy in’s, Prepack pushes etc apart from a regular weekly flyer planning
• End to end promotional planning- Manage the promotional program from end-to-end-quarterly planning, financial performance, pricing decisions, vendor interaction, flyer proofing, and post-mortem reviews
• Competitive landscape- Regular store visits to become well versed in benchmarking the pricing strategies, assortment decisions, merchandising decisions and promotional activities
• Vendor meetings- Regular vendor meetings with all the major vendors and a quarterly cadence to monitor the performance and tweak plans according to actuals
• Relationships with support functions- Maintaining a healthy relationship with marketing, supply chain, finance, space planning and control brand teams to support the health of categories
• Managing the base business- Understanding the base business is very core to my heart as that drives 80% of sales. Cleaning up retails, making sure assortments are up to date etc is one of the important task as a merchant
• Leading a business- As a merchant, we are practically responsible for running a profitable business with a right balance of Sales, margin and O&A
• Using data to support decisions- Using historical data to take right decisions- Post mortem, AC neilsen, Top shelf, CSD reports help us guide in the right decisions

Desk handled-Meat, Deli, Seafood, HMR with Wholesale Clubs,

• Ad proofing: Doing weekly first and final ad proofs for Challenge Your Menu, Vendor books and Club Savings flyer.
• Price checks: Doing monthly price checks for every department to ensure that we are operating in our strategic framework for maximized profits.
• Category Insights, Seafood: Realigned and revamped category strategy for seafood after reviewing current offerings in detail and changing the assortment mix after incorporating suggestions from assortment optimization and operations team.
• Assortment and Planogram changes : Making sure all our planogram releases are in sync with Market/Discount to capture assortment optimization and new innovations.
• Daily shortages: Following up diligently with supply chain every day for shipment deliveries to ensure store receives the product and are not shorted as availability is the key.
• Missed margin opportunities: Deep diving all the articles where we lost dollars due to cost variances in system and getting that corrected from cost simplification team on a weekly basis.
• CDC billings: Tracking down monthly CDC billings and getting the funding from the vendors and providing the sales data to the Canadian Dairy Commission.
• Store Operations feedback: Coordinating with GFS as well as our DM's, BDR's and Store managers to communicate all the latest updates regarding sales and weekly promotions and also addressing their concerns.
• BU Procurement meetings: Attending procurement meetings with the business to keep ourselves aligned with rest of the organization- DNO's, new listings, inventory to be cleared etc.
• Vendor meetings: Regular meeting with vendors to review their promotion plans and assortment mix and formulating strategies to maximize ad productivity.
• DSD costings: Reviewing weekly DSD cost changes and getting those updated in system and aligning our retails accordingly within a strategic framework.
• O&A billings: Following up with vendors for negotiated deal sheets and making sure we get those dollars billed in system.
• Opportunity buys: Doing the product selection every week based on the sales, discounting, profitability and assortment requirements.

Desk handled-Breakfast, Coffee/Tea, Water/POP, Snacks and Frozen grocery

• O&A management : Managing the entire O&A for the categories (Water/Pop/ALT Beverage, Snacks/Juice, Frozen grocery, Frozen Ice cream/Juice, Biscuits/Crackers/NPF, Baking, Coffee/Tea, Breakfast and RTE) and ensuring O&A comp growth over LY by benchmarking against Market, Discount, Wholesale and identifying opportunities to maximize NTGP.
• Ad proofing : Completing weekly ad proofs to understand products, pricing strategies, costing and marketing calendar for the given categories.
• Assortment and planogram changes: Leveraging APT reports diligently to ensure that categories are aligned with all APT/ planogram changes with Market and Discount to keep our catalogues updated by assorting and pricing items in a weekly manner.
• Reporting & category support : Supporting merchants to achieve category targets by analyzing weekly sales and by providing shipment reports, Market and Discount item performance report, items planned on promotion by Market/Discount versus items planned by AI, variances in front page item planning over last year, Micro strategy O&A and sale reports, PET tool reports, post mort-em reports etc and supporting category with store cost overrides.

With expertise in omni-channel ecosystems and experiential designs, Match Marketing provides sales assistance, promo activation and engagement, and test market implementation and measurement
• Promotional Displays: Ensuring all promotions are highlighted as per the plan and generating reports for stock issues
• Planogram Execution: Ensuring that planograms are aligned with the seasonal strategy and planning at the store level
• Store Replenishment: Coordinating with the store managers to order out of stock articles and fill the stock gaps as required

DLF Brands retails luxury and lifestyle brands such as Mango, Forever21, Sunglass Hut and Mothercare in India with annual revenue of $ 75 M
• Played a key role in expansion of Mothercare brand in India with 10 stores opened in one year leading to 36 % sales growth
• Merchandise Planning: Formulated 3-year sales plan for new brand sign-ups and also inventory management, store allocations, marketing plans, and negotiating on costs with vendors for existing and new brands.
• Brand Management: Led a team of Merchandisers to manage Mothercare India operations of over 60 stores and responsible for achieving budgeted revenue and margin targets
• Inventory Management: Analyzed sell through reports regularly to assess the reasons for low sales performance and formulating a comprehensive plan of action for the team to maintain a right balance of mark down, sales, and inventory levels
• Marketing Events & Promotions: Visited stores to plan and implement new store openings, key marketing and sales promotion events, and to boost enthusiasm of sales staff

Bharti Retail Ltd.in partnership with Walmart strategically sells private label brands such as Great Value, Mainstays, George, Equate etc. as Walmart’s partner in India and is one of the largest retailers with more than 220 stores catering 76,000 customers every day
• Retail Buying: Sourcing from manufacturing hubs like Tirupur, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangladesh and China by travelling and sourcing product at the best possible price and conceptualize product presentation and packaging
• Merchandise Operations Management, Sell Thru Analysis and Replenishment planning: Responsible for phasing stocks, sales, margins and markdowns for the department that contributes 6% of total sales to the company.
• Sourcing & Assortment Planning: Created a detailed Buy and Source plan for the season covering number of options, styles, value/volume mix, category mix, quantity per option, size and color mix, and sale window for each particular style

TPG Wholesale Pvt. Ltd. has around 160 owned and franchise stores in India and is owned by USA based investment fund TPG

• Led kids wear (Girls) category and revamped it into one of the best performing categories with a CAGR of 31% (2010-2014)
• Retail Buying and Merchandising: Developed detailed SKU Mix/Range architecture for all selling seasons for kids girls category at sub-category, style, option and fabric level to ensure right product mix and display in stores
• Supply Chain Management: Coordinated with central logistics and warehouse to ensure accurate and timely processing and delivery of orders, and liaised with over 60 vendors to monitor production status and scale-up plans