Head Modern Trade & Key Accounts

Location: Delhi NCR

Experience: 8 - 14 years

Industry: Fragrance / Beauty / Personal Care / FMCG / Lifestyle / Consumer Brands

Compensation: upto 40 LPA

Reporting to: Founder / CEO / Business Head

About the Role:

We are looking for a commercially strong and entrepreneurial Head Modern Trade & Key Accounts to build and scale our offline retail business across India.

The role will own the Modern Trade business end-to-end, including channel strategy, key account management, revenue growth, commercial negotiations, distribution expansion, sell-in, sell-out, trade investments, merchandising, forecasting and profitability.

The ideal candidate will have strong relationships with leading modern trade and premium retail chains and a proven track record of scaling consumer brands across offline channels.

This is a business ownership role, requiring equal strength in strategy, commercial negotiations and on-ground execution.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Modern Trade Strategy & Business Growth:

- Develop and execute the annual Modern Trade strategy and business plan.

- Build the channel roadmap across national, regional and premium retail accounts.

- Identify new retail opportunities and expand distribution across priority markets.

- Set account-wise revenue, distribution, productivity and profitability targets.

- Build a scalable offline growth engine for the brand.

2. Key Account Management:

- Own relationships with senior buyers, category managers and commercial teams.

- Lead negotiations on listings, margins, trade terms, promotions, visibility and launches.

- Develop Joint Business Plans with strategic retail partners.

- Drive account-level growth, productivity and long-term partnerships.

- Identify whitespace opportunities within existing accounts.

3. Revenue & P&L Ownership:

- Own the Modern Trade revenue target and channel profitability.

- Manage trade spends, discounts, schemes, visibility investments and commercial terms.

- Track gross margins, contribution margins, ROI and account profitability.

- Build account-level business cases before committing trade investments.

4. Sell-In & Sell-Out:

- Drive both primary sales and secondary/sell-out performance.

- Monitor store-level productivity, SKU movement and inventory.

- Identify slow-moving SKUs and implement corrective actions.

- Build mechanisms to improve repeat purchase and consumer conversion.

5. Distribution & Retail Expansion:

- Lead onboarding of new retail accounts.

- Drive store expansion within existing accounts.

- Develop channel-wise assortment and SKU strategy.

- Ensure the right products are available in the right stores.

- Build plans for launches, seasonal peaks and new product introductions.

6. Trade Marketing & Merchandising:

- Work closely with Marketing to develop account-specific activations.

- Own in-store visibility, displays, gondolas, counters, testers and POSM.

- Ensure premium brand presentation across stores.

- Develop promotional calendars aligned with consumer and retail moments.

- Track execution quality through regular market visits.

7. Forecasting & Supply Chain:

- Own account-wise demand forecasting.

- Coordinate with supply chain to maintain optimum stock levels.

- Minimize stock-outs, excess inventory and ageing inventory.

- Establish clear processes for replenishment and inventory visibility.

8. Team Leadership:

- Build and manage the Modern Trade team as the business scales.

- Define KRAs and performance metrics for account managers and field teams.

- Build strong review mechanisms around sales, distribution, stock and profitability.

- Manage external sales/distribution partners where required.

9. Cross-functional Collaboration:

- Work closely with Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, Product and Operations.

- Translate consumer and retailer insights into commercial opportunities.

- Partner with Marketing on launches, campaigns and in-store activations.

- Provide leadership with regular business reviews and growth plans.

What we're looking for:

Must-have:

- 8 - 14 years of experience in Modern Trade / Key Accounts / Retail Sales.

- Strong experience in Beauty, Personal Care, Fragrance, FMCG or Lifestyle.

- Proven experience managing national and/or large regional modern trade accounts.

- Existing relationships with major retail buyers is highly preferred.

- Demonstrated experience delivering significant revenue growth through Modern Trade.

- Strong understanding of sell-in, sell-out, margins, trade spends, schemes and retailer economics.

- Experience negotiating commercial terms and Joint Business Plans.

- Strong analytical and commercial skills.

- Ability to work closely with founders/senior leadership in a high-growth environment.

- Willingness to travel extensively across markets and stores.

Strongly preferred:

- Experience scaling a D2C/consumer brand into offline retail.

- Experience in premium/premium-mass fragrance, beauty or personal care.

- Experience launching new brands/SKUs through modern trade.

- Experience managing distributors or third-party sales partners.

- Existing relationships with Nykaa, Tira, Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Reliance, Sephora, Health & Glow, NewU or similar accounts.