Rethinking FMCG Distribution Growth

Q1. Could you start by giving us a brief overview of your professional background, particularly focusing on your expertise in the industry?

Thirty years in consumer goods teaches you one thing above everything else: growth strategies are only as good as the execution infrastructure behind them. That belief has shaped everything I have done.

Twenty-two years at Nestlé India across field sales, regional management, and shopper marketing for Maggi and Chocolates & Confectionery gave me an integrated view of how large FMCG organisations actually work at every level, from factory gate to the last kirana. A subsequent move to Relaxo Footwear as GM Sales North, with a mandate to transform a fashion brand into a distribution-intensive business, and a stint building a confectionery vertical at DS from the ground up, rounded out that corporate grounding.

Since transitioning to independent advisory work, I have worked across 25+ consulting engagements with 15+ companies , FMCG founders and brand owners spanning the full GTM spectrum: sales cost optimisation, pricing architecture and pack strategy, market entry and town classification, distributor appointment and network restructuring, throughput improvement at the outlet level, field force effectiveness, and building the organisational frameworks to manage multiple channels simultaneously without…