Retail proposition The company serves customers through stores and digital channels across footwear and related everyday-use products. Value depends on fit, comfort, quality, style relevance, price, availability, service and fair resolution when products do not perform. The business must manage seasonal buying, size curves, store productivity, digital fulfilment, returns, suppliers and brand investment without allowing assortment breadth to consume cash.

The Board seeks a General Management-oriented Independent Director to guide portfolio, format, customer and organisation choices as the company prepares for institutional scale. The appointee will challenge growth based on gross store openings, online traffic or sales before returns when the underlying customer, inventory and cash economics are weak.

Nine customer and portfolio themes

1. Define the customer and value proposition. Clarify use occasions, price architecture, fit and comfort promise, durability, fashion content and service across formats. Category expansion should solve a customer need rather than fill selling space.
2. Make merchandising accountable. Review option count, size curves, depth, intake margin, full-price sell-through, markdown, repeatability and exit. Merchandising decisions should have visible owners and post-season learning.
3. Protect product quality and claims. Govern material, construction, sole or closure integrity, skin-contact risk, labelling, origin and performance claims. Supplier changes require controlled approval and complaint monitoring.
4. Build one omnichannel promise. Align assortment, pricing, inventory visibility, fulfilment, cancellation, exchange, refund, loyalty and customer records.



Channel silos must not create inconsistent rights or duplicate inventory.
5. Open and close stores rationally. Assess catchment, format, occupancy, fit-out, staffing, cannibalisation, digital interaction, break-even and exit cost. Mature, ramping and impaired stores should be reported separately.
6. Strengthen supplier and sourcing strategy. Evaluate concentration, lead time, minimums, quality, labour conduct, material traceability, foreign currency, continuity and speed. Buying advantage must not rely on hidden social or product risk.
7. Use customer signals as operating data. Analyse fit returns, discomfort, breakage, colour or finish issues, delivery, service and refund friction by product, batch, supplier, store and channel.
8. Develop leadership for retail rhythm. Build succession across merchandising, sourcing, stores, digital, supply chain, brand, finance and customer service. Incentives should reward full-price cash, inventory health, repeat customers and service quality.
9. Prepare the business for listing. Standardise comparable sales, stores, active customers, gross and net revenue, returns, inventory turns, markdown, customer acquisition, loyalty and store contribution with auditable definitions.





General Management decisions The Director will contribute to recent formats, store clusters, category entry, owned or licensed brands, digital investments, sourcing shifts, fulfilment design, loyalty, acquisitions, leadership appointments and IPO timing. Each proposal should show customer logic, repeatability, inventory, capex, working capital, cannibalisation, full economics and exit conditions.

The Board should review cohorts rather than averages: store opening vintages, customer acquisition periods, product seasons and supplier quality. Growth that requires permanent markdown, excessive returns or prolonged supplier credit should be treated as structurally weak.

Customer and retail evidence

Reporting should cover full-price sell-through; markdown; size availability; inventory age; returns by reason; quality complaints; supplier failures; store cohorts; occupancy; staff turnover; digital fulfilment; cancellations and refunds; repeat customers; loyalty economics; acquisition spend; contribution after returns; cash conversion; audit findings; and IPO readiness.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring at least 22 years of senior leadership across fashion, footwear, consumer retail, merchandising, sourcing, omnichannel, brand, supply chain or multi-site service operations. Former CEOs, retail business heads, COOs, merchandising leaders, consumer executives and experienced pre-IPO directors may be suitable.

The Board wants a broad operator who understands both product and customer, and who can make hard portfolio, format and people decisions. Financial literacy is essential, but this is a General Management seat.

📌 Independent Director (Mumbai)
🏢 Gladwin International u0026
📍 Mumbai