PROFESSIONAL CREDENTIALS

Jan 2017 to Jan 2024

Chief Executive Officer Al-Ikhsan Sports Sdn Bhd

Elevated Al-Ikhsan Sports from a mere Home -grown sports retailer to one of best known Malaysian Retail Icons enjoying over 35% market-share within its category in West Malaysia- Today Al-Ikhsan Sports is the #1 in sports retailer in Malaysia
From FY 2017- FY 2022, the organization has achieved Net sales growth of 2X & EBITDA growth of 11.5X with over 94% of Store network being EBITDA +ve even during these challenging times
Crafted the Purpose, Mission and Vision statement for the organization with a detailed 5-year business plan encompassing a segmented strategy to drive market share growth.
Moved the organisation from a single Retail Concept to a segmented retail concept by formulating a structured expansion strategy – From a single concept Al-Ikhsan Sports to Sports Warehouse, Football Republic, Liverpool Football Club mono-brand, chat ‘n’ shop, www.al-Ikhsan.com and Al-ikhsan e-market places. This has allowed the organization to move from just a 110 store network as of FY 2016 to 190+ store network by FY 2023.

Jan 2013 to Dec 2016

Delivered a 25% growth in Net Sales and 40%+ growth in EBITDA in the year 2016
Put in place a robust HR processes along with a strong employee incentive and rewards across all levels of management- employee turnover reduced from 5% to less than 1%
Delivered the Highest B2B order with Amway in Samsonite Malaysia’s history worth RM 5 million – this is also the biggest B2B order across Asia this year.
Put in place strong processes for merchandising which resulted in reduction of inventory holding from 205 days in FY 2014 to 116 days in FY 2016
Started the Outdoor Business Unit from scratch. Launched the brand High Sierra in early 2013 and brand Gregory in July 2014 – The division grew 6X across Asia between
2012-2014.
Established brand High Sierra across Multiple channels in Asia : Department stores, General merchandise stores, Hypermarkets, Sporting goods, Outdoor specialty, Backpacks specialty, Travel retail & Ecommerce (Ecommerce contributed to 15% of the
business in Asia as against the 5% globally. High Sierra was made available across more than 2000 POS in Asia.

August 2011 –January 2013 (Hong Kong)

Increased the royalty income of Asia from USD 3 Million to approximately USD 9
Million in the span of 16 Months
Worked with the China licensee/partner to build a 5-year strategic China plan doubling
Existing distribution and depth- 550 stores by 2016 while driving distribution deeper
to Tier 3,4 and 5 cities
Successfully launched Nautica brand in Korea through a manufacturing/distribution
license
Launched Nautica Kids with LF Asia in Greater China Region (China, Hongkong and
Taiwan) in September 2012
Worked with the partners in South East Asia to put together a high growth 3 year business plan with all key Licensees in Projecting a healthy double digit growth.

June 2008 - August 2011 ( Hong Kong)

In coordination with Global Creative Director co-created commercial and Scale-able “Past Present and Future”

Global Retail and wholesale Concept for New Balance (addressing needs from 20 sqm to 400 sqm+ locations).

Successfully rolled out 300+ Free standing stores and Shop-in shops in more than 45 countries across International during the period
Retail Business grew 4X during the period (chiefly driven by retail expansion in China, Korea and South-East Asia
Created the New Balance International SOP for Retail Environment, Visual Merchandising, In-store communication and Store operations
Built a strong network of Store design, Fixture production, Onsite execution and Customer Experience Companies capable of managing large scale global roll-out

November 2006-May 2008 (Gurgaon- India)

Grew the business from a level of 100,000 handsets per annum to 600,000 handsets per annum within the given period.
The contribution of the modern trade channel grew from a mere 5% to more than 20% of the overall business within that period.
Established Sony Mobile as a clear number 2 with a 17% value Market Share in Modern trade against the national average of 8% for the brand in the overall market.
Achieved an ASP of USD 150 for the brand against the national average of USD 60 for the other mobile phone brands.

November 2001-October 2004 ( India)

November 2004- October 2006

Rolled out 100+ FSS and SIS in the period across the tier 1 and 2 cities of India-Including 5 flagship stores in excess of 400 sqm.
Signed up 125 locations in the top 25 cities in malls and high street- In terms of retail pipeline was acknowledged by a lot of real Estate advisory companies as one of the strongest in the industry comparable to Reebok and Titan.
Put in place a Standard operating procedures manual along with a Store management appraisal process in the top 50 stores in 12 tier 1 and tier 2 cities of India.
Initiated a Retail Excellence Program involving a process of benchmarking across the top 25 stores on the metrics of Traffic, Capture, Conversion, Average Transaction value, COGs, SG&;A and Mystery Shopping performance- This was presented as a case
study for Retail excellence initiative in the APAC board meeting held in Singapore in 2006.
Was consistently ranked number 1 in the Regional Mystery Shopping program driven by Synovate.