Yahia Adel Z AlSharif

Heading up Arla's biggest business in MENA, Spreadable Cheese, contributing to 40% of the total revenue

Responsibilities:

- Lead the Regional brand/category performance, growth and profitability

- Identify and drive brand profit improvement initiatives in all parts of the P&L (e.g. pricing, supply chain, recipes, etc)

- Lead the development and execution of the 2023-2028 innovation pipeline to achieve sustainable category growth

- Champion the commercialization of Arla's sustainability roadmap with relevant partners, entities, and governments

- Oversee the delivery of the category strategy, ensuring the commercial plan aligns with the long-term goals

Lead on building the Puck brand and the Spreadable Cheese business for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Achievements:

- Exceeded the 2022 BP with strong volume & profitability growth
- Led best-in-class campaigns, boosting brand power to Star status across MENA
- Shaped Puck's new brand purpose & positioning for future success
- Developed Puck's sustainability roadmap for People & Planet impact

Worked as part of the EMEA Global Brand team in Denmark for our licensed brand, Starbucks®.

Achievements:

- Actively driven the development of the Starbucks Ready-To-Drink 2026 strategy

- Headed the optimization of the Starbucks EMEA channel strategy including an improved Below the Line toolkit

- Successfully led the development of the Starbucks e-Commerce EMEA Strategy and activation toolkit

- Co-created the brand's activation plans and development of growth building blocks

- Led the innovation & product launches of several exciting NPDs across EMEA (Single Serves & Multi-serves)

Handled Starbucks® Ready-to-Drink chilled coffee range across UAE, Oman, & Qatar and led the development of Arla's educational program in-cooperation with the UAE Ministry of Education (MOE).

Achievements:

- Commercially, grew the Starbucks brand double digits vs. previous years across all three markets

- Executed several projects to drive impulse buying in relevant purchase locations across channels

- Landed new relevant convenience channel partners, which resulted in double digit volume growth

- Partnered with a multinational giant in confectionary to collaboratively grow sales via relevant channels initiatives

- Successfully developed and launched Arla's educational program across 250 schools in the UAE in collaboration with the UAE's MOE

Handled the Ready-to-Drink chilled coffee range of Starbucks® across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Achievements:

- Commercially, doubled the business of Starbucks in KSA across channels

- Landed Saudi Arabia's three biggest convenience partners (SASCO, MEED, ENOC)

- Digitally, ran two social media campaigns which resulted in above average conversion rates

- Improved Starbucks forecast accuracy by depot, resulting in 18% monthly incremental volume

Handled the Spreadable Cheese category under the Puck brand across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Achievements:

- Grew the Cheese segment under the Puck brand by 16% vs. the previous year

- Increased Top of Mind Awareness by 12% and Most Often Used shares by 7% for the Puck brand

- Executed a cross channels plan that achieved 4.5% increase in market share to claim Leadership position

1st Rotation (06/2013 - 12/2013): Assistant Category Manager - Puck®, Shopper Marketing, Riyadh - KSA

2nd Rotation (12/2013 - 06/2014): Project Lead, Category Management and Key Customer Plans, Sharjah - UAE

3rd Rotation (06/2014 - 12/2014): Project Lead, Business Development, East Africa Strategy 2020, Dubai - UAE