Pepperfry strengthens its leadership team
Pepperfry strengthens its leadership team

In a move to strengthen its core leadership team for new business expansion plans, Pepperfry.com, India’s No.1 Furniture and Home products marketplace, has re-aligned its core leadership team and appointed new personnel at senior positions. Hussaine Kesury who was previously handling the Pepperfry furniture business has assumed a new role as the Chief Activation Officer and Mihir Kulkarni has been elevated to the position of Vice President to head Pepperfry’s furniture business. Additionally, Pepperfry also announced the appointment of Alok Varman as the Head of Pepperfry Studios and Ratika Bakshi, Category Head for New Business Expansions.

Pepperfry has established itself as the market leader in the online home and furniture segment. In the last three years Pepperfry has rapidly expanded the omni-channel network to establish 37 Studios (owned and franchise) across the country. Pepperfry Studios have emerged as key engagement points touchpoints contributing 25-30% of the overall Pepperfry business wherein customers spend considerable amount of time consulting experts to build their dream homes.

The company is looking to leverage the customer engagement at the Studios further by expanding into a ‘full-stack’ interior solutions provider. With a significant competitive edge, Pepperfry is well positioned to offer interior designing and home interior projects such as flooring, ceiling, painting, tiling etc. In his new capacity as the Chief Activation Officer, Hussaine Kesury will spearhead the offline expansion, franchise business and the new business endeavour.

Hussaine has been a part of Pepperfry since its initial days and has been a key contributor towards building Pepperfry’s robust furniture portfolio. He will be supported in this endeavour by Alok Varman and Ratika Bakshi.

The Studio business is one of the key business drivers for Pepperfry, Alok will focus on further steam-lining the operations and will be responsible for scaling Pepperfry’s Activations business to expand the Studios network across the country. Alok Varman re-joins Pepperfry after a one-and-half year stint with Wydr where he was the Vice-President-Operations. He was responsible for Customer Support and Fulfilment. Prior to this he was associated with Pepperfry for nearly 5.5 years. He was the Head (Associate Vice President) – Operations (Supply Chain & Fulfilment).

Speaking about his second stint with Pepperfry Alok said, “I have been associated with Pepperfry since inception it’s like a homecoming for me. We have built a formidable home and furniture business and as we look to establish the largest omni-channel network in the segment. I am confident that I will be able to make a significant contribution in building a robust network of Studios across the country.”

Prior to joining Pepperfry Ratika was leading the design team at Nestopia. She has worked with Godrej Interio and was a professor at LS Raheja College of Architecture. She is a qualified architect with a post graduate degree in industrial design from IIT Bombay. Ratika will focus on setting up the new business to provide interior and home design services. She will be responsible for driving all sourcing, partnerships and training initiatives for the new business expansion plans.

Ratika Bakshi said. “I am excited to join Pepperfry, which is the leader in the home and furniture segment. It offers myriad possibilities and I am looking forward to collaborating with the team and creating beautiful homes which is in line with the Pepperfry vision.”

Mihir Kulkarni, who was earlier spearheading marketing to strengthen brand Pepperfry, will now lead the Pepperfry Furniture business. In his new capacity, he will be responsible for scaling Pepperfry’s house brands portfolio and growing the market for Pepperfry’s marketplace brands. He will also focus on bringing more product groups into the Pepperfry House Brands fold.

 

 
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