Feroz loves getting people around to enjoy good food. So, it was a natural fit to join Arla as Country Category Manager for Lurpak in Saudi Arabia in 2014. After successfully supporting the growth of the brand, Feroz was keen on new learning opportunities and challenges. He found it in the Distributor Sales team in Dubai and, in 2021, moved there with his family. As Trade Marketing Manager Feroz works with distributors to promote products across all categories to eight different markets in The Middle East.
Feroz loves getting people around to enjoy good food. So, it was a natural fit to join Arla as Country Category Manager for Lurpak in Saudi Arabia in 2014. After successfully supporting the growth of the brand, Feroz was keen on new learning opportunities and challenges. He found it in the Distributor Sales team in Dubai and, in 2021, moved there with his family. As Trade Marketing Manager Feroz works with distributors to promote products across all categories to eight different markets in The Middle East.
Feroz lives in Dubai together with his wife and their two daughters. He enjoys treating colleagues to an ice cream and regularly organises team breakfasts with great zest - where everybody brings cooked food from home. Coming from Chennai in India, Feroz likes to bring the South Indian delicacy Idly - a healthy baked dish made of rice and lentils.
Bringing Lurpak to life
With experience from an advertising agency, Feroz joined Arla as Country Category Manager for Lurpak in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2014.
“I was very excited to work with Lurpak because it is all about good food and creating moments with the people you love, which is what I like to do at home and at work. In that sense, I felt a personal fit with the brand,” Feroz says and continues:
“I became part of the team running the commercial agenda on Lurpak, which means being close to shoppers and gaining market insights. I enjoyed using my marketing experience to bring the brand to life through digital activation, sampling campaigns, and in-store displays.”
Distributor Sales across markets
After successfully supporting the growth of Lurpak in Saudi Arabia, and also spending two years handling our cooking creams range, Feroz took up a Trade Marketing Manager role in the Distributor Sales team in Dubai. This is a team of 12 colleagues from Marketing, Sales, Supply Chain and Foodservice working with markets like Bahrain, Jordan, Libya, Yemen, Palestine, and Egypt.
“This was a great learning opportunity for me because the setup is very different. In Saudi Arabia, we have a production site and a full commercial team, who are all Arla employees working towards the same strategy and targets,” Feroz explains and elaborates:
“In Distributor Sales, you have the distributor between you and the retail customer. They are not Arla employees; they distribute other products as well, however, are dedicated partners. So, the way we communicate and engage with them is different and more planned to drive the results for Arla.”
“It is also a big learning to work with such a broad range of markets. On one side, I market products to Bahrain, where shoppers have a high purchasing power, at the other end of the spectrum is Yemen, where shoppers have a low purchasing power, each market needs it’s unique marketing techniques.”
A new home in Dubai
Taking up the new role also meant that Feroz had to move from Riyadh to Dubai with his wife and two daughters. They quickly got settled into their new home and Feroz felt welcomed by his new team. “I feel like Riyadh and Dubai offer the same environment to work well and raise a family. So, the challenge was mainly to have the courage to move after living many years in Saudi Arabia. But my family was very agile and open to coming to this new place and meeting new people,” he says and continues:
“Going to different Arla offices around the world, you have the same feel and people are driven by the same values and ways of working.”
“Any Arla colleague who is looking to move abroad should take a lot of reassurance in that,“ Feroz adds.
