Business Head

Position name: Business Head 
Location: Kolkata (On-site)

Reporting to: Reports to Director

Role Overview
It  is a luxury Italian pantry and gifting house launching in India at the end of June 2026. We are hiring a Business Head to own the India side of the business end-to-end from the day
they join. The Director continues to own producer relationships and brand direction. Everything that touches the Indian market sits with this hire — channels, team, customers, numbers.
This is a builder's role, not a maintainer''s. It is the third brand to come out of a multi-decade family business — operating infrastructure, import licenses, warehouse, agency stack,
and producer relationships are already in place. You inherit a brand identity, a producer roster, a launched D2C site, and the operational base. You build the rest.
Everything built in the first 12 months becomes the foundation for the next 10 years.
Reporting &Team
Reports to: Director
Direct reports: India team to be built. Say on who joins, how the team is structured, and when to exit.
Peer coordination: Director (producer relationships, brand direction), Head of Accounts, Head of People &Talent, brand and digital agency partners
Team scope: Builds from zero. Hires and shapes the India team as channels scale.
Core Responsibilities
A) Full India P&L Ownership
● Own revenue, gross margin, channel mix, and working capital for company
● Set Year 1 targets in agreement with the Director; own the outcomes against them
● Build monthly MIS the business can act on — not a report, a decision tool
● Drive channel-wise contribution margin discipline; protect margin as volume scales

● Working capital control — inventory turns, AR days, dispatch cycle all within agreed bands
B) Channel Development & Sales
● Build and execute the India channel strategy across HORECA, luxury retail, corporate and private gifting, and HNI direct
● HORECA: target the hotel and fine-dining accounts that anchor the brand in the right cities — depth over count
● Luxury retail: secure listings in the flagship gourmet destinations across India's major metros 

● Corporate and private gifting: build the Q3 and Q4 calendar — this is a serious commercial pillar, not a side channel
● HNI direct: build a structured outreach framework — private clienteling, referrals, considered relationships
● Own pricing, account terms, partner negotiations, and commercial relationships across all B2B channels
C) D2C Channel Leadership
● Own the D2C P&L from the day you join — the site goes live end of June 2026
● Drive month-over-month growth across acquisition, conversion, and repeat
● Own unit economics — CAC, LTV, AOV, repeat rate — benchmark, optimise, report
● Email and CRM stack — Klaviyo flows, lifecycle marketing, segmentation discipline
● Merchandising calendar — launches, drops, seasonal moments, gifting windows
● Agency relationships — manage creative, SEO, paid, and lifecycle partners; brief tight, hold them to outcomes
● By month 12, D2C is a channel the business can plan against, not a brochure with a checkout
D) Brand Execution & Customer Experience
● The brand identity is built — you execute against it
● Campaigns, retail presence, B2B presentation decks, gifting design, packaging implementation
● Close the loop between customer signal and brand action — what works, what doesnt, what to do next
● Own the customer experience end-to-end — from first contact through repeat purchase
E) Operations & Fulfilment
● The infrastructure exists — warehousing, fulfilment, dispatch, customer service. You run it.
● Drive operational discipline as volume grows — accuracy, speed, cost
● Maintain audit-ready records and clean handoffs with Accounts and the Director

● Customer service standards — set them, train against them, escalate to you only when needed
F) Team Building & Leadership
● No team in place today. You build the right one at the right pace.
● Say on hires and exits
● Activate your own professional network in the first 90 days — minimum 5 qualified
candidate referrals across roles you intend to open
● Coach direct reports; build the function so Year 2 doesn't depend on you being in every meeting
● Partner with Head of People & Talent on compliance, payroll, and statutory hygiene
G) Reporting & Operating Cadence
● Weekly numbers to the Director — pipeline, revenue, cash, exceptions
● Monthly board-style review — full P&L walkthrough, channel health, team status, forward plan
● Quarterly strategy sessions — re-baseline channel mix, capacity, hiring pla n
● Build the operating cadence in the first 60 days and run it without prompting

Ideal Candidate Background
Experience
● 5–10 years in consumer brands, ideally luxury or upper-tier
● We rather hear about a serious P&L at a smaller house than a junior role at a famous one
● Direct P&L responsibility for a brand or vertical of ₹3 Cr or more — owned, not contributed to
● Two or more of these channels at senior level: HORECA sales, luxury retail distribution, D2C e-commerce, corporate gifting. One channel deep is not enough.
● Has built or significantly scaled at least one consumer brand from sub-₹5 Cr to ₹15 Cr+ (strong preference)
● Hands-on with at least one premium consumer category — food, beverage, gourmet, lifestyle, or luxury retail
● Has hired and managed small teams in a builder context, not inherited large teams in a corporate context

Education
● Graduate degree required
● MBA preferred — top-tier consumer/luxury brand programs particularly relevant
● Hospitality, F&B management, or luxury brand management coursework is a plus, not a requirement

Non-Negotiables
● Has owned a P&L, not just contributed to one
● Functional generalist — can hire a brand designer, brief a Klaviyo flow, sit in a HORECA pitch, and read a P&L in the same week
● Brand instinct — understands quiet luxury without needing it explained. 
● Builder's temperament — comfortable in a small team where the work is the work
● Willing to be based in Kolkata

Key Skills & Attributes
Hard / Technical Skills
● P&L management — revenue planning, gross margin discipline, channel mix, working capital
● Channel strategy and execution across B2B and D2C
● D2C e-commerce literacy — Shopify or equivalent, Klaviyo, paid acquisition fundamentals, lifecycle marketing
● Sales process design — pipeline management, account development, B2B partner negotiation
● Brand execution — campaign planning, retail merchandising, packaging implementation, agency briefing
● Financial reporting and MIS — reads a P&L, builds reporting the business can act on 
● Hiring discipline — JD writing, interview structure, performance management
Soft Skills
● Builders temperament — calm under pressure, decides fast, comfortable in ambiguity
● Functional generalist — fluent across sales, ops, brand, finance, and team
● Brand instinct — understands quiet luxury intuitively
● Hires, manages, and lets go without sentiment
● Owns outcomes — does not escalate problems upward, closes them
● Articulate across audiences — fluent with HORECA buyers, retail principals, agency
teams, and operations
● Discretion — handles HNI relationships and sensitive commercial conversations with
judgment
● Writes clearly, speaks directly, no politics
KPIs (Monthly / Quarterly)
1) Distribution & Channel Wins

● HORECA accounts onboarded — depth and quality of accounts matters more than
count; benchmark set by month 3
● Luxury retail listings live in flagship gourmet destinations across 3+ metros by month 9
● Corporate and private gifting Q3 and Q4 calendar locked by August; revenue pipeline
visible against it
● HNI direct outreach framework live by month 6
● Pipeline health: every active channel has next-quarter pipeline visible at any point
2) D2C Performance
● Site live and stable from launch (end June 2026); zero post-launch downtime in first 90
days
● Month-over-month revenue growth tracked; quarter-over-quarter consistently outpacing
● Repeat purchase rate baselined by month 4; improvement plan executed
● Email and CRM driving compounding repeat — open, click, and conversion rates
benchmarked
● CAC and LTV understood and trending in the right direction
3) Revenue & P&L Discipline
● Year 1 revenue target set in offer conversation; tracked monthly
● Gross margin baselined by month 3; quarter-over-quarter improvement targets
● Channel-wise contribution margin tracked and reviewed monthly
● Working capital discipline — inventory turns, AR days, cash conversion within agreed
bands
4) Operating Spine & Team
● Core India team hired and stable by month 6 — sized against business need, not
arbitrary
● Channel playbooks documented for each active channel by month 9
● Operating cadence with Director running from month 2 — weekly numbers, monthly
review
● 90-day retention of new hires: 90%+
● Hires contributed from own network: 5+ in first 90 days
5) Brand Execution
● Campaign calendar live and executing by month 4
● Retail presence (in-store displays, gifting design, packaging rollout) deployed by month 6
● Customer feedback loop established — repeat purchase signals and qualitative
feedback flowing back to brand and product
● Zero brand-voice or visual identity violations in market
Knockout Questions (Ask Before CV Review)

All applicants must answer these in writing before any CV is reviewed. No exceptions.
● How many years have you worked in senior consumer brand or P&L leadership roles?
[minimum 5 in consumer brands, with at least 3 in a senior or leadership capacity]
● Have you owned the P&L for a consumer brand or vertical worth ₹3 Cr or more? Name
the brand, your years there, the scale at exit, and your specific scope of ownership.
[required yes]
● Of the four channels — HORECA, luxury retail, D2C e-commerce, corporate gifting —
which do you have direct senior-level experience in, and for how many years each?
[minimum two channels at senior level]
● Have you built or significantly scaled a consumer brand from below ₹5 Cr to ₹15 Cr or
more? Describe in three lines. [optional — strengthens candidacy but does not
disqualify]
● Are you willing to be based in Kolkata? [required yes — non-negotiable]
● What is your earliest possible joining date?
● What is your last drawn CTC, and what is your expected CTC?