Prasanth PJ

Universal Enterprises (UE) is one among the Oldest (1972) & biggest conglomerate in Bahrain with annual turnover in excess of US$ 40m & spread across FMCG, Franchise (Baskin Robbins), Office Equipment (HP laptops & Samsung printers), Office Furniture (Milliken Carpets USA) & Logistic (McDonalds) sectors of trade. As guiding force for a team of 78 team members that include Divisional Managers of FMCG, Logistics etc. & reporting to Managing Director, primary accomplishments include Key Achievements – FMCG:  Major achievement was overcoming the debacle of sudden & shocking exit of major brand in mid-2019 that was almost contributing 50% of Sales & GP, by year 2022 via introducing new brands/products, Categories, new Channels of distribution.  Milestone was attained by transforming UE from SBC to full-fledged FMCG Company through introduction of 50 new brands/products, new channels of distribution (bakery line), aggressive categories/products expansion in HORECA & Retail, extending into Non-food segment of retail trade, adding frozen fleet to vans etc.  Acquired exclusive distribution of JPB & Agristo French Fries, Colgate Palmolive (P), Super Fresh & Tiptop poultry range to name a few that are contributing near to 50% of topline & bottom-line. Key Achievements – Logistics:  Entrusted by the management to convert available land into warehousing facility, transformed to state-of-the-art warehouse that can encompass 1500 pallets of Frozen, Chilled & ambiance space.  Successfully negotiated n closed deal with McDonalds on better price realization terms (10%) from on-going RPW while extending lease period from 1 to 5 years thereby ensuring consistent business as well cash flow resulting in enhancement of ROI to 13%. Ongoing discussion to further double up the space to 3000 pallets for next 5 years.  Instrumental in acquiring storage business of Baskin Robbins from 3PL provider and thereby ensuring regular annual income in excess of BD 50k for last 4 years.

Zad Holdings one among the oldest Public Limited Company in Qatar with 7 subsidiaries under its belts like Qatar Flour Mill, UmmSaid Bakery, NFC, Dandy dairy to name a few. As BDM of UmmSaid Bakery (largest industrial bakery in Qatar and largest baker of Arabic bread in GCC) my responsibilities include  Business development planning that includes presentation to senior management on developing new products, services & distribution channels.  Identifying new business opportunities & New Business development, Building key customer relationships while leading institutional team in achieving set objectives.  Working closely with internal teams & departments to ensure and enhance sales growth. Key Achievements:  Based on my research & feedback introduced new product “Mini Milk Samona” that is fetching additional revenue of QR 5, 00,000/month.  Instrumental in getting “YUM” certification which resulted in securing 4 new products from KFC giving additional revenue of QR 225,000/month

Promoted & took over as Head of the Company in 2012. As Company head reporting to Group CEO & BFFC board & guiding vibrant team of 53 members with functional heads directly reporting to me, responsibilities & accomplishments include Key Achievements:  Took over loss making Company with annual sales & loss of US$ 7million & US$ 500k respectively during mid 2012 & by delivering top-line growth rate of 71%, transformed BFFC into a major Food & Fruits player with annual sales above US$ 12 million and Gross profit growing by 50% to US$ 1.8 million by 2016.  Acquired Chiquita banana, Delmonte Pineapple as exclusive brands in Fruits, first to successfully introduce Cavendish banana (VKS brand) from India.  Added famous brands like BRU, Kissan, Tajmahal from Unilever stable.  Instrumental in converting Chiller to Frozen chambers resulting in availability of 500 pallets space which helped in skyrocketing frozen sales without additional storage cost thus saving in excess of BD 100k.  Streamlined Manpower by 28% from 73 in 2012 to 53 by 2017 thereby reducing annual payroll expenses by BD48k and this exercise was carried without affecting business growth via replacement through labour supply and assigning multitask functions to team members. Responsibilities:  Primary responsibility is to ensure Sales & Profitability of the Company by managing staff and by establishing and accomplishing business objectives.  Assess and decide upon key investment like Infrastructure, Equipments & Talents etc that will enhance business.  Constructive meetings with divisional heads/Finance/HR head to overview sales performance, Collection & Cash flow, Recruitment & training of new personnel.  Evaluating and maintaining crucial Customer & Vendor relationship management.  Looking to the future of business & accordingly making key investments & investment recommendation to board.

Promoted as Department head of Purchase and reporting to General Manager primary responsibilities include:  Maintain just-in-time inventories as well avoid shortage of all existing products & brands.  Identify the needs of Sales department & accordingly scout for new agencies, products & commodities for sales optimization.  Flash n frequent meeting with Sales Manager to update about international price of commodities as well get local market feel and happening so that the Company can equip in advance to smoothly meet the future needs of the market.  Working closely with Sales, Finance & Supply Chain department in regards to Products, Accounts payable & delivery schedule etc.  Working closely with external parties like Clearing agency, Insurance Company &Shipping Companies to ensure smooth and swift flow of goods.  Build and maintain wide network of International vendors in order to ensure consistent supply of products from across the world.  Supervise and guide Purchase Officers in their operational functions like Purchase forecast, Purchase orders, Insurance, Clearing documents.  Attending various trade fairs to keep abreast the latest happening in Food industry to explore the possibility of new agencies, categories, products, vendors and markets. Key Achievements:  Instrumental in adding famous brand TETLEY to the portfolio in addition to opening up NON-FOOD division by sourcing CP Trendies from UAE & GOODMAID toiletries from Malaysia.  Incorporated control points at all levels of import operations and thus attained enhanced accuracies.  Negotiated & finalized credit facilities with 90% of existing suppliers as well new one.  Introduced currency hedging for better price stability in coordination with Finance department.

Recruited and reporting to Sales Manager, primary responsibility was to develop & execute Marketing strategies and plans for SADIA brand poultry in conjunction with the Principal. Key accountabilities include Volume forecasting, Brand planning, Market research & Opportunity analysis, Product launch & promotions. Key Achievements:  Instrumental in achieving 20% growth year on year for Sadia by redesigning sales force structure.  Introduced trade load schemes in Key Accounts for Frozen chicken thereby blocking limited freezer space from competition which helped in achieving above growth in addition to tailor-made consumer promos to key accounts.  Instrumental in launching Sadia Bakery line (Pizzas, Lasagna, Cheese bun) in Bahrain market & building the category through continuous sampling, tasting & consumer promotions & Volumes touched to 2mt/month.

As K.A.E with consumer division of MMI handled agencies like McVities, GSK & R&B before moving to Ferrero team. Reporting to Trade Marketing Manager responsibilities include Sales plan, Key Account plan, Product launch etc.  Key contributor in achieving all time record sales of AED 3million for Ferrero chocolate during Nov 2003 & overall showed growth of 20% & 26% in assigned Key accounts during 2002 & 2003 respectively.  Designed & implemented stock ageing analysis report to maintain stock freshness & prevent expiries.  Successfully designed & implemented Nuetella cross promotion with in-house bread for Union Cop & Lulu group.  Received financial reward for successfully coining & implementing “Kinder Gift Box” promo to capitalize “Back to school theme.