Field Director, Distribution & New Business Development at Cellularline (2017-01 – 2026-01)
Reporting to the CEO, managing an indirect sales force (80 agents) and the Distribution Business Unit.
- Responsible for the execution and development of pricing, promotional, and visibility policies across Grocery Retail (GMS) and Consumer Electronics/Telephony specialized stores through a team of 80 sales professionals.
- Accountable for achieving revenue and EBITDA targets for the Italy Business Unit (€100M Net Sales), with a specific assignment for new business growth (Smartphone protective films).
- Creation and management (with a dedicated team) of the third-party brand DISTRIBUTION BU (SAMSUNG, HUAWEI, SANDISK, TELEPASS), overseeing vendor relationships and holding direct responsibility for P&L, strategy, commercial planning, and execution.
- Developed new third-party distributed business lines from scratch, delivering strong absolute results for vendor partners (e.g., grew SAMSUNG ACCESSORIES from €0 to €20M Net Sales in 5 years).
- Shifted sales force operations from a "Sell-In Oriented" to a "Performance Oriented" approach, introducing tailored CRM tools to measure in-store execution and sell-out performance per single store/client.
- Created and scaled a new Business Unit for smartphone protective films. Managed P&L, strategy, and execution, driving a significant impact on turnover (from €0 to €17M Net Sales in 5 years).
Sales Director at Danone Spa (2014-01 – 2017-12)
Reporting to the Commercial Director, leading a team of 30 professionals structured into National Account Managers and Key Account Managers. Full responsibility for all distribution channels: Grocery Retail, Horeca, Traditional Trade.
- Defined client/channel strategies, managing the related P&L and brand activation plans.
- Led national commercial agreement negotiations with all Grocery Retail accounts.
- Designed and implemented training and development programs for the Customer Team.
- Successfully negotiated contracts keeping trade investments stable within deflationary market contexts.
- Developed the E-commerce channel by onboarding new clients (Amazon, Supermercato24, Click-and-Collect Grocery retailers) and expanded Horeca/Foodservice channels (Autogrill, McDonald's).
- Redesigned the sales organization by merging distribution channels, generating a 15% saving on distribution costs and maximizing profitability per channel.
- Secured partnership with McDonald's via the ACTIMEL/Happy Meal project; accelerated Amazon, Supermercato24, and ESSELUNGA ON LINE, achieving a growth rate 20% higher than the company average.
Head of Trade & Customer Marketing at Danone Spa (2012-01 – 2014-12)
Reporting directly to the Commercial Director, responsible for developing and monitoring the brand/channel/store format/client commercial strategy, managing a team of 20 Trade Marketers and Customer Category Managers.
- Defined the commercial brand plan regarding product portfolio and activation levers.
- Managed all communication toward the sales force: sales canvasses, meetings, and motivation plans.
- Developed customer-specific category plans through a team of Customer Category Managers.
- Created and deployed the in-store activation plan (budgeting €9M): from shopper research to final execution.
- Overhauled the promotional lever management process (budgeting €40M) in partnership with McKinsey, implementing volume-control tools that improved promotional ROI by 200 basis points.
Field sales manager at HEINZ SPA (2010-01 – 2012-12)
Report directly to the Commercial Director managing 20 key account for the BUYING GROUP channel.
- Managed Area Managers and Key Accounts operating across Italian retail groups (Conad, Crai, C3, Sigma, Selex).
- In the first year: restructured the sales force from an agency model to a direct employee model, delivering a 20% structure cost saving and achieving a market share in the target channel 150 basis points higher than the corporate average by the second year.
- Defined all framework agreements with national accounts and drove category development plans via Top-to-Top meetings and quarterly business reviews.
Head of Trade Marketing at HEINZ SPA (2006-01 – 2010-12)
Reporting to the Commercial Director, leading a team of 10 Trade Marketers with full responsibility for defining the commercial brand strategy across Grocery Retail (GMS) and Pharma channels.
- Built the Trade Marketing team from scratch, defining commercial strategies tailored by channel and store format.
- Partnered with the Marketing team to define annual commercial brand activation plans.
- Redesigned the commercial strategy for the pharmacy channel in collaboration with BAIN & CO.
Various roles at Reckitt Benckiser / Kraft (1998-01 – 2006-12)
Consolidation of commercial expertise.
- Managed National Accounts (Carrefour/Auchan/Metro/Selex) through trade agreement planning, managing promotional plans, assortment optimization, and customer P&L.
- Gained extensive experience as a Trade Marketer, designing the complete commercial strategy for major Laundry Detergent brands.
