Hikari Suzuki

Product Manager for the T-fal Breakfast & Beverage Category (Kettles, Coffee Makers and Toasters) in Japan.

Kettles

• Led the T-fal Kettle business which has about 6 billion JPY in net sales and 50% gross margin by working very closely with the BU and taking responsible in all processes from concept making of the products to BTL and ATL communications to fit into the Japanese consumers needs and to launch effectively in the market for Kettles.
• The brand is also NO.1 in value and volume market share (48% in value, 45% in volume in August 2022 GfK) in the Kettle market in Japan.
• In order to boost trade-up from simple to added-value products and increase sales and share in the growing high price (9,000JPY<) range, launched innovative temperature control type products written below.
• Café Control 1.0L a gooseneck type temperature control kettle which was launched in March 2022 has gained 13.5% market share in August BIM in the gooseneck type temperature control segment, gaining most of it's share from Delonghi's gooseneck type temperature control kettle.
• Display Control 1.0L which was launched in February 2022 has achieved +81.2% vs planned PLP volume as of September, and is now at 10th place in the GfK hitlist as of August BIM.
• Théière 1.5L which was launched in October 2021, has reached it's annual planned PLP of 15Kpcs in only 6 months thanks to the unique tea/fruits tea making concept and collaborating local tea making recipes with KUSMI TEA (French tea company).

Coffee Makers and Toasters

• Using the strength of the T-fal Kettle brand in Japan, launched a breakfast set of Kettle, Coffee Maker, and Toaster with the stainless type "Maison" series, which helped to increase distribution of the coffee maker by 700 stores and toaster by 900 stores vs the old models.

Assistant Product Manager for the Food Preparation Category (mainly Hand Blenders).

・Assisted in the concept making of a Hand Blender with an attachment of a "Baby Blender" which makes small amount of baby food blending easier, and also creating assets such as local recipe books for babies and healthy recipes for moms.

Led in all processes from concept making to fit into the Japanese consumers needs and to launch effectively in the market for liquid type coffee beverage products.

• Used my hands and feet and walked around to different coffee shops in Japan to monitor and actually taste what the trend of the market is at the moment and shared the information with the R&D team to develop new and innovative products.
• Worked transversely with the R&D, Marketing Communication, Research and Sales Team to develop and launch multiple products every 3-4 months for convenience stores and every semester for mass retailers.
• Launched a white colored coffee beverage which distributed in 7 different convenience store companies including key companies such as Seven Eleven, and sold a total of 5.8 million bottles in 6 months thanks to the unique concept and sweet candy-like taste of the product.