Munchkin has appointed supply chain veteran Kunal Thakkar as its first chief supply chain officer, adding more than two decades of industry experience to the baby products manufacturer’s leadership team.
The company announced the appointment in a Sept. 10 press release. Thakkar joined Munchkin last month and reports to Steven Dunn, CEO of parent company Why Brands.
In his new role, Thakkar is responsible for a broad range of functions across Munchkin’s organization, including global operations, supply chain, compliance, costing and sourcing, demand planning and analytics, order management, and program management.
“Munchkin has built an extraordinary legacy of innovation and consumer loyalty, and I’m excited to help build the supply chain that supports its next chapter of growth,” Thakkar said in the release. “I look forward to partnering with teams across the organization to bring greater speed, resilience, and scale to how we serve our retail partners and the families who trust Munchkin every day.”
Before joining Munchkin, Thakkar spent two years as CEO of Seair Global. During that time, he led the company through a transformation from a traditional freight forwarder into a logistics and technology services provider, according to the release.
His career spans more than 20 years in supply chain and includes senior leadership positions at Walmart, Newegg, Firstleaf, UPS and Thrasio.
At Thrasio, Thakkar served as chief supply chain officer and oversaw more than $100 million in spending across sourcing, warehousing, transportation and inventory. He also helped reduce inventory levels by nearly 50% over an 18-month period for the company, which owns e-commerce consumer product brands including Angry Orange and Vybe.
Dunn said Thakkar’s background in scaling global, omnichannel supply chains will support Munchkin’s efforts to strengthen operations and accelerate growth.
“Kunal’s experience scaling global, omnichannel supply chains will help Munchkin bring greater innovation, speed to market, resilience, and customer service to everything we do, while strengthening the capabilities needed to scale our direct-to-consumer business across owned and third-party digital channels,” Dunn said in the release.
The newly created chief supply chain officer position is part of Munchkin’s broader effort to adapt its organization to the increasingly complex requirements of omnichannel retail.
Dunn told Supply Chain Dive that the company established the role specifically to help Munchkin grow “with the ever changing requirements of omni-channel selling.” Thakkar’s mandate includes delivering greater speed, resilience and scale in the way Munchkin supports both its retail partners and customers.
The company is already looking to build out the supply chain organization further. Following Thakkar’s appointment, Munchkin is recruiting a director of global sourcing and costing, according to a LinkedIn post from Thakkar.
“This role is vital to our continued financial growth and product scalability, blending engineering cost insights with high-impact global sourcing,” Thakkar said in the post.
The recruitment reflects the broader supply chain agenda now taking shape under Munchkin’s new chief supply chain officer as the company continues to scale across retail and direct-to-consumer channels.
