Jagathish Pichaiyappa

- Responsible for setting up buying, inventory management and merchandising of categories such as bedroom, mattress, soft furnishing, lighting, tabletop - Instrumental in setting up process for OTB management, assortment plan, selling price, margins, product launch, markdown and overall product lifecycle management - Developed a detailed category strategy for Lighting incorporating critical feedback from customers, competition, retail and overall category trend - Successfully opened Household format store in Zahia City Centre with focus on Carpets, Lighting, Décor and Bed & Bath.

- Conceptualized and successfully opened new format stores including opening 'Store of the Future' for Home Centre in Mirdif City Centre of size ~80,000 sqft in Jan-22 - Leading operations of 8 stores with a team size of 600 members and an annual turnover of ~US$ 135Mn - Maximizing revenue & profitability of stores through sales and commercial performance, inventory management, business development and people management and develop new format stores - Creating competitive advantage with data driven approach - Implementing digitalization & innovation in technology within the stores - Updating relevant stakeholders (Buying, Merchandising, HR, Store Planning, Marketing) about competitive & market trends - Managing roll-out of new projects and ensuring time bound implementation of projects

- Managed categories with an annual turnover of over US$ 140Mn across operating countries while maximizing revenue & profitability of assigned product categories - Ensured: o Right assortment plan, selling price, margins, product launch and overall product lifecycle management o Effective in-season management across countries (stock balancing, markdown management, stock analysis, stock vs sales performance) - Developed a detailed category strategy for 3 product categories incorporating critical feedback from customers, competition, retail and overall category trend - Gained ideas & insights, understood category trends and identified suitable suppliers through international furniture trade fairs - Introduced new & exclusive product ranges in the market and achieved great returns - Provided relevant product information to Retail and L&D team for product training, price tag generation and for creating customer buying guides Established strong vendor relationship with 40+ suppliers across MENA, Asia Pacific and Europe

• Managed the end to end cost of goods sold negotiation process for top suppliers • Prepared a detailed category profile, spend analysis, sourcing strategy and negotiation strategy • Prepared a clear responsibility matrix for managing stocks right from product conceptualization to product delivery at customer location following ARCI approach • Prepared a comprehensive business strategy focused on key strategic objectives

• Designed and implemented a consistent and uniform business dashboard linked to the overall business KPIs across Revenue, Manpower, Stock, Warehouse and other internal business functions • Improved stock availability of key SKUs across all operating countries • Managed business plan through fortnightly tracker and update senior management on its progress • Prepared business plan that is categorized into new initiatives and business as usual • Created a ‘To-Be’ process for business transformation based on category wise workshop outputs and business activity prioritisation based on effort required and impact potential

• Provided an overall store wise monthly and yearly analysis and country wise performance to top management covering retail metrics, inventory, staff and updates on critical projects • Provided analysis on effectiveness of Sale, Catalogue sell through, Events and new promotions • Updated Standard Operating Procedures on new operations and ensured that the procedures adhere to central audit requirements • Developed and launched display guidelines covering new products, merchandising principles and ensured a 100% implementation across countries • Introduced use of PDT across all stores for price check and price tag generation • Formulated and implemented an intranet platform to develop price tags including overall pricing standards for all countries • Managed Non trading item requirements, procured from new vendors to improve quality and optimize costs • Responsible for Management Trainee Programme that include their recruitment, Retail training module, development, evaluation and final internal placements across the region • Provided first level of market entry strategy through country profile and necessary macro-economic information to top management for feasibility study • Developed pricing model for new countries that Home Centre is venturing into

• Provided an overall monthly analysis on store and country performance to top management covering retail metrics, inventory, staff and updates on critical projects • Developed new report formats and analysis for stores and countries to follow; Sale tracker, footfall report and more • Developed an launched Standard Operating Procedures manual and ensured that it was followed for all store operations • Developed and launched display guidelines covering new products, merchandising principles and ensure a 100% implementation across countries • Designed a comprehensive Management Trainee programme for the role of showroom manager and was responsible for their recruitment and evaluation process • Coordinated with senior team to ensure that management trainees’ development needs are addressed, development plans made and monitored on a regular basis

• Worked 1 year in the stores from the level of Sales Associate to Store manager across 5 showrooms in 4 Emirates • Was part of a team that successfully opened RAK Safeer Mall, store

• Analyzed client’s business requirements and prepared ‘Systems Requirement Documents’. • Developed 12 new services for Inventory Management module in network provisioning systems • Created a Knowledge Management System with the technical and business expertise of Telecom domain • Mentored and trained 3 newly joined members in 2008 and 2009 • Formulated Quality process to improve the turnaround time for delivering priority 1 client’s requests which resulted in achieving efficiency of 70% from 43% • Responsible for Function Point Estimations used for costing of IT projects