Arvind Mediratta

Elixiir (with double i) Foods is an omnichannel, technology-driven food platform focused on becoming the most trusted source for fresh, wholesome (organic, natural, pesticide- and antibiotic-free, minimally processed) and gourmet food. The platform spans categories such as Fresh Produce, Dairy, Meat, Poultry, Seafood, and daily essentials, including Flours, Rice, Spices, Ancient Grains, Condiments, Snacks, Beverages, Ready-to-Eat, and Frozen Foods.

Working with late stage start-ups (including a well known unicorn) funded by top tier PE/VC funds to perfect the business model leading to sustainable and profitable sales growth. Advising and mentoring the entire top management team on strategy, right financial and business model, cost optimisation, leadership hiring, creating robust systems and processes and improving the “go-to-market” execution. Focus is to: a) either scale the business successfully for a blockbuster IPO or b) create a robust business model backed with strong financials to enable large future fund raises for rapid expansion.

Who We Are A boutique advisory firm with deep retail domain expertise, we offer strategic counsel grounded in decades of CEO/CXO experience, and shaped by what the future of consumption demands. What Sets Us Apart • Founder-led Wisdom: With a proven track record in building billion-dollar businesses, we bring unmatched credibility, networks, and real-world insight. • Retail First: Unlike generalist advisory firms, we’re unapologetically focused on retail and consumer—understanding shelf-to-screen journeys like no one else. Our Promise To walk with you. To challenge you. To elevate you. Because excellence isn’t just a destination—it’s a way of being.

Led a major turnaround at Metro Cash and Carry India by transforming it into a profitable, billion dollar business from an entity that was deeply in the red since inception for 14 consecutive years. This involved a complete change in the Management Team, huge transformation in the company’s culture and values, big shift in strategic focus towards profitable customer segments and making the organisation extremely agile and customer focused. Further between 2020-22, successfully transformed Metro into an omni-channel player with ~20% of business coming thru eCommerce channel. This transformation was led by a strong employee engagement and a culture of Diversity and Inclusion. We were rated amongst India’s Top 25 Best Employers in 2021 (by The Economic Times and The Great Places to Work Institute) and India’s Best Workplaces for Women in 2022 (by Femina and The Economic Times). Successfully led the sale of Metro India business to Reliance at a total enterprise valuation of approximately €600million.

Worked on $54 billion Fresh business with responsibility for making the Fresh categories (Produce, Meat, Dairy, Deli, Bakery, Frozen) more relevant for all Hispanic Customers across all 4500+ Walmart stores in US. Also responsible for the Omni-channel strategy for the Fresh business.

Responsible for the highly profitable, multi-billion Walmart business in South Texas with more than 20,000 employees.

Was heading the Cash and Carry Business Unit overseeing all functions - Buying, Merchandising, Operations, Sales, Business Development, Marketing, Membership, Finance, Logistics, Supply Chain, HR and Store Planning. Was the first employee to join Walmart's cash and carry business and was instrumental in setting up a highly successful cash and carry business that's acknowledged globally within Walmart as an incredible success story. Also built an organization that was truly a role model for its customer centricity with a strong culture of innovation, team-work, integrity and meritocracy. In 2014, Best Price store in Lucknow was rated as the "Best Store of the Year" in the entire Walmart International business (which has more than 6000 stores).

Complete P&L responsibility for the entire Cash and Carry division. Head this business unit that has more than 5000 employees across Operations, Buying & Merchandising, Supply Chain, Logistics, Replenishment, Sales, Marketing, Membership, Business Development, People and Finance. Successfully set up Bharti Walmart's Cash and Carry business from scratch by leading all major activities - Development of Business Strategy and Business Model, Building a top notch Organization that has more than 5000 employees, Leading the Real Estate acquisition and Design & Construction program, Putting in-place all core Business Processes and Systems, Leading all Vendor Negotiations and Private Label program, Running Store Operations, Developing innovative Payment and Delivery solutions and the E-Commerce program, etc. Successfully completed a 3 year leadership program with Walmart that's specially designed for "Top Talent" at Global Officer level - senior leaders who have been handpicked to to run multi-billion dollar businesses.

Was heading Marketing, Branding, new Product Develpment and Communication for Pizza Hut, KFC, Tacobell & A&W for India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Mauritius. Totally, there were about 250 restaurants that were a mix of franchisee and company owned stores. Also was part of KFC and Pizza Hut Global Leadership Councils and played an important role in in setting the strategic direction for these brands globally. Was rated among "Top Global Talent" at Yum! at CXO level.

Was part of Whirlpool's Top Management Team heading Marketing and Product Development for all businesses - Refrigerators, Washing Machines, Air Conditioners and Microwaves. As VP (Marketing and Product Development) of Whirlpool from Aug 2003 to May 2005, successfully grew Whirlpool’s market share from 19.8% (OND’03) to 24% (AMJ’05) in Refrigerators and from 12.5% (OND’03) to 15% (AMJ’05) in Washing machines via: a) New product Launches – a new range of Refrigerators with “wow” styling, innovative features and “best-in-class” cooling and Washing Machines with a unique “stain removal” benefit; b) New advertising campaign based on the idea of “6th sense” technology (defined as “technology that mirrors the intuition of a woman and hence can proactively sense what she wants”); c) Print campaign and on-product stickers to highlight Whirlpool’s credentials as “America’s no. 1 home appliance company” and d) Signing up the celebrity Bollywood couple of Kajol and Ajay Devgan to endorse the Whirlpool brand.

5th in Batch; Name in Institute's ROLL OF HONOR

Top 10% of Batch