MAM
Venu Gopal is head of buying at Infiniti Retail
MUMBAI: Tata group firm Infiniti Retail has appointed Venu Gopal as the Head of Buying.
He will replace Rahul Tayal, who stepped down as the chief of buying with effect from June 15, 2016 to relocate to Delhi in order to stay closer to his family and pursue new opportunities.
“Venu is a seasoned retail professional with over 2 decades of experience. He has handled pretty much every category Croma deals in and is a familiar name in every partner organization we do business with. Venu is Infiniti’s 1st employee and his accession is a strong testimony of our commitment to promoting talent from within the organization,” said Infiniti Retail Limited CEO Avijit Mitra.
An economics graduate with a PGDM in Retail, Venu Gopal is an industry veteran with 21 years of experience in Sourcing, Merchandising, Planning, Operations, Sales & Marketing in Electronic Mega Stores, Hyper Markets & Life Style Department Stores.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
