SUMMARY:

• Innovative and accomplished merchandising manager/director, merchant with a strong background in cpg sales and marketing of retail food, drug, total store merchandising. In depth strength at Floor, store, space planning creation, category management, shopper insights, purchasing, and region/zone pricing structures. Extensive experience in creating diverse versions of store formats, and store specific layout allocations.
• The development and leadership of state of the art space/category merchandising management procedures, and the development of customized store fixturing concepts. This includes utilizing advanced technologies and data sets to maximize optimum sales and profit potential. Excellent time management skills, retail analytics, also multi - tasking project planning. Years of retail store operations management expertise and product knowledge utilizing best practices, with field supervision and store personnel, to maximize profit and minimize loss.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Owner / Operator- Retail Innovation Designs

Confidential, New Jersey

Responsibilities:

• Specializing in Food / Drug / Dairy / Frozen Center Store Retail Merchandising Space Planning insights and execution utilizing Latest Retail Software Technologies.
• Region Demographics / Store Specific Applications.
• Emphasis on Mainstream, Specialty / Gourmet, and Natural, Organic Foods, Drug, improvements based on latest trends.
• Development of Conventional and customized Store fixturing.
• Category Management. utilizing Syndicated / Market / Region / Store Specific Data.
• Shopper Insights decisions and applications determining custom store layouts and product mix.
• Purchasing and region/zone pricing structures, P&L improvement processes.

Space Planning / Food-Drug National Product Allocations Manager

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Created integrated merchandising program to drive and analyze business through leading retail technologies
• 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.
• Development of field merchandising team architecture to provide quick implementation of deliverables to stores based on updated category and customer research.
• 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 and 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 point of sale reporting to return maximum store profit potential.

Store/Space/Category Management Senior Consultant

Confidential, Overland Park, Kansas

Responsibilities:

• Provided store supervision coverage to see store execution evaluations and reset information to headquarters.
• Created in-depth category management and sales improvement through the use of chain and market data to increase sales and profits by managing cpg shelf and product mix metrics for chain/store/category sections.
• Developed merchandising 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 Merchandising/Marketing

Confidential, New York, New York

Responsibilities:

• Development of prototype food store with customized mix and merchandising concepts to maximize optimum sales and profit potential.
• Executed vendor negotiations to select best distributor assortments, and development funding to grow business through increased tonnage.
• Created custom store specific planograms for key driver categories to target pinpoint customer base.
• Optimized product mix assortment for center store categories through market/chain category management practices. Performed store specific recommendations to drill down to customer demographics and needs. Utilizing customer club card information toward shopper marketing opportunities.
• Impact of concept store has increased same store sales with 7 to 20% increase over previous year in tonnage, sales, and profit.
• Developed store operation practices to provide structure, maximize efficiencies, reduce shrink creating high net increase profit results through advanced forecasting, and P&L improvement.

Manager of Space Management

Confidential, Parsippany, NJ

Responsibilities:

• Directed and advanced retail store merchandising, space planning - development, merchandising allocations/category visual concepts.
• Executed and responsible for all reset, remodel, new store openings, and category management development and implementation projects.
• Developed product mix and allocation for clustered stores and their neighborhood demographics
• Created merchandising formats for diverse store sizes utilizing store specific, market, and shopper data to maximize and drive sales and profit potential.
• Drove same store sales by creating store specific planograms, 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 merchandising 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.
• 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 section planogram 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 accomplish product-group-chain goals for sales/ tonnage/and profits.
• Decreased store shrink through key best practices and metrics. Focused on total store physical unit.

Owner - Retail Development Directions

Confidential, NJ

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%.

Director of Retail Sales Technologies

Confidential, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Responsibilities:

• Introduced fact based selling of food drug general merchandise to the New York marketplace food class of trade.
• Provided organization - leadership and for Category management, space management marketing analysts.
• Responsible for space management leadership responsibilities for the companies 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.
• Increased principal accounts by pinpointing trade weaknesses and showing advantages to new best practices to propel sales.

Space Management Coordinator

Confidential, Elizabeth, NJ

Responsibilities:

• Implemented merchandising - planograms with product mix formats and practices used at the retail level of Shop-Rite Supermarkets for Grocery, Health & Beauty Care, General Merchandise.
• Utilized and provided positive results with the use of P-O-S data, impacting Store Planning and Store Specific merchandising.
• Increased unit movement and profits as much as 50% by applying revised merchandising concepts, product mix allocations, and inventory control measures to maximize ROII.
• Provided assistance to store members in opening new units and implementation of major remodels and resets by making specific recommendations to: Operations, selling area space allocations, merchandising flows and set-ups, participating in store resets and ordering customized and standard store fixtures.
• Responsible for supervising cooperative member groups for merchandising, sales and margin objectives for Grocery/Habc/General Merchandise.