SUMMARY:

• Innovative and accomplished business leader, merchant with a strong background in CPG sales and marketing enhancement for retail food, drug, general merchandise, perishables, total chain allocations and procurement. Key strengths at presenting new product sales opportunities and development using category management, shopper insights, regional and cluster consumer demographic processes. Retail headquarter background in product category purchasing, Supply Chain Forecast Planning, Retail Remodel/New Store Planning and Execution, Visual Merchandising Manager, Product Space Planning, Customer Service,
• Merchandising Field Team Director, and Chain Operations Project Management. This includes utilizing advanced technologies with IRI and Nielsen data sets to maximize optimum sales and profit potential with market comparisons for consumer centric results. Multi - industry technical writing. Excellent time management skills, retail analytics, also multi-tasking project planning. Developed and mentored personnel for success in management roles. Extensive operations skills to maximize profit.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Senior Advisor / Owner

Confidential, Caldwell, NJ

Responsibilities:

• Reviewed supply chain practices and programs for optimum deliverables for Manufacturers, Retail Headquarters, Retail Stores and Brokers. Extensive Connections with NY Metro and Tri state independent /chain retailer brokers.
• Emphasis on Mainstream, Specialty, Gourmet, and Natural, Organic Foods, and Drug, improvements based on latest trends and category subcategory development.
• Historic scan Data with market review and customer demographics used to maximize item mix potential for all commodities.
• Developed sales driven results utilizing The Category Management Process, Space planning (planograms) processes for clients.
• Ecommerce regimens pinpointing utilizing consumer demographics for optimum product sales.
• Managed large teams for retail execution and driving new business and first to market initiatives.
• Shopper Insights decisions and applications determining custom product mix and store layouts.
• Provided direction and management in the development for multiple store banners for Natural Organic, Specialty, and International Foods. This included natural habc and cleaners.
• Utilized consumer centric tactics to grow and accelerate sales and tonnage development to high double- digit performance for comp stores and new store independent member growth.
• Created guide of to store ownership and store personnel to show how to meet, deploy, and understand product mix to provide growing consumer demand. through retail seminars and store visitations.
• Provided Purchasing and promotional planning for small and mid-sized companies. Retailers, Distributors.
• Development and rolled out of new catalog design of products deliverable to stores. For ease of product ordering, and discovery through improved categorization and visual advertised images.
• Grew category sales from flat straight-line business to double digit growth driving new practices into place.
• Same store sales increases of up to 30% over prior year sales accomplished.

Food-Drug National Product Allocations Manager/Planner

Confidential, Stores Union, NJ

Responsibilities:

• Delivered a new process for merchandising execution, category management, and customer demographic insights to propel best practices in regional clustering and store specific allocations.
• Directed and selected a new team of vendor partners to contribute, and manage categories across all Confidential banners, and drive business unique to region and concept.
• The execution and development of new merchandising visual concepts at retail to drive business and offer maximum sales potential for both food and drug commodities.
• Utilizing enhanced fixturing presentations with custom integrated concepts.
• Processes measured sales and movement gains of over 10% proportions in 52 week reporting study.
• Executed and identified areas of retail growth and decline by store coverage supervision. Generated opportunities for ecommerce and categories to first target.
• Provided development opportunities to advanced skills in store level associates toward business analysis to optimize P/L objectives.

Store/Category Management Senior Consultant

Confidential, Overland Park, Kansas

Responsibilities:

• Created in-depth category management and sales improvement using chain and market data to increase sales and profits by managing cpg shelf and product mix metrics for chain/store/category sections.
• Developed concepts that enhanced proper product allocations based on consumer demographics and population densities utilizing cluster grouping of stores.
• Coordinated and created best practices policies in conjunction with company standards to maximize sales and profit potential with account executives for improved buy-ins for regular and promotional activity.

Director of Sales and Operations

Confidential, Parsippany, NJ

Responsibilities:

• Directed and advanced retail planning - store development, product allocations/category visual concepts, seasonal and forecast product planning projects, custom fixturing development and operational improvements.
• Developed product mix and allocation for clustered stores and their neighborhood demographics.
• Created merchandising formats for diverse store sizes utilizing store specific, market, and shop per data to maximize and drive sales and profit potential.
• Drove same store sales by creating store specific product allocations, increased base units, sales, profits, and incremental purchases from 5-80% for categories by re-aliening product-category adjacencies and pinpoint product rationalization.
• Increased gourmet food sales up to 40% in two- year period, and accounted for 15% of total grocery sales.
• Propelled natural and organic food sales up to 30% in 2 years, and accounted for 9% of total grocery sales.
• Accelerated general merchandise and health and beauty care sales by increasing 25% and created new product allocations concepts to drive growth.
• Created incremental sales opportunities of over $750,000 per year, developing and implementing cross merchandising general merchandise plan, within grocery and perishables sales areas for 26 store base.
• Developed Natural-Organic store within a store concept, increased same natural product sales as much as 60% from previous segregated format.
• Developed chain Intranet web site dedicated for store product allocations and product reporting for use to develop and educate store personnel on propelling today’s best business practices.
• Utilized technology and efficient practices with field supervision and store operations personnel to maximize sales and profits; for center store and perimeter locations through improved display and data usage.
• Developed and created merchandising teams through the manufacturer and broker vendor community to maximize remerchandising activity and managed over 150 people to accomplish chain implementation goals.
• Decreased store shrink through key best practices and metrics. Focused on total store physical unit.

Confidential, Caldwell, NJ

Owner - Retail Development Directions

Responsibilities:

• Utilized syndicated P-O-S data, category analysis reports and providing Store Planning/design and execution.
• Established merchandising/marketing/category management plans with recommendations for highest business potential to client base.
• Pinpointed and quantified areas of expansion or declining business, provided action plans for improvement of profitability.
• Provided category management presentations for small brokers to give them ability to sell in product lines to major supermarket and drug chains.
• Managed and increased small chain district sales and profits by 10% in two years, decreased shrink by 30%.

Confidential, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Director of Retail Technologies and Sales Enhancements

Responsibilities:

• Introduced fact based selling of food drug general merchandise to the New York marketplace food class of trade and responsible for making top to top presentations to Clients in the marketplace.
• Provided organization - leadership and for Category management, space management marketing analysts.
• Responsible for space management leadership responsibilities for the company principals to the Food/Drug trade accounts.
• Participated in all major presentations to trade partner accounts promoting and enacting (fact based) category management sales enhancement practices.
• Developed principal accounts trade spending by pinpointing account weaknesses and showing advantages to new best practices to propel sales profitably.