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Work Background
Associated Wholesale GrocersSenior Manager of Merchandising, Space Planning
Oct. 2022Kansas City Metropolitan Area• Assist the Executive Director, Category Management Execution in the leading and developing strategies, process workflow, and communication of the yearly Category Initiative projects for our $13B of wholesale sales per year organization. • Work cross functionally with category management and their leadership, private brands and specialty foods to support their teams in the overall creation and execution of the Category Initiatives. • Communicate with the leadership of nine separate divisions to help in the push to get members signed onto the Category Initiative projects by addressing any concerns they might have for the program and the planograms supplied for the projects.
• Manage and direct the relationship of the onsite Acosta planogram support team and oversee the development and implementation of the planograms for both AWG and its wholesale members.
• Provide feedback in work submitted by Acosta and provide directional changes to help them provide a final product that reflects the shelving principals as identified by both the Center Store leadership and my expertise.
• Identify and adjust the roles and responsibilities of the AWG space planning team to be more efficient and to be agile to the changes in the overall business.
• Hold the stakeholder of each level of the projects accountable to their deadlines.
• Development of department Standard Operating Procedures.
• Working closely with Symphony AI on the conversion of our existing desktop platform to the cloud-based platform. Work with them to strategically monetize the program being developed for both suppliers and members.
• Engage cross functionally with the Category Management team to launch and be successful on the SymphonyAI Assortment Optimization platform. Develop and coach the AWG space planning team for advancement within the company.
Hy-Vee, Inc.Director Merchandising
Jan. 2017 - Oct. 2022West Des Moines, Iowa• Oversee all development and implementation of Plan o Grams for Hy-Vee Inc, a $13B of retail sales per year business.
• Direct a team of merchandising project managers in the plan o gram production process and store merchandising tasks.
• Develop systems of communication from the merchandising support center team to the stores with the goal of educating the store leadership of the projects to increase the implementation rate.
• Build and develop new ways to communicate and “sell” our goals and vision to the 302 autonomous store directors.
• Participate in category analysis, communicate with our external category captains, and make decisions and recommendations from a merchandising perspective.
• Work alongside category managers and leaders to implement the best in class sets in our stores, resulting in significant sales growth and market share gains in the categories.
• Lead all merchandising aspects of opening new stores and acquired locations.
• Oversee the implementation of third-party activities in our stores, from food demos to their party assisted category resets.
• Played the key merchandising and design role in remodeling and resetting around 275 stores in the nearly six years in the role. Developed a standard flow of category merchandising in stores based off of shopper insights data and partnering with industry leaders to verify and measure the results.
• Played the key merchandising role in the development and the decision making in the creation and implementation of Hy-Vee’s new banner, Dollar Fresh Market.
Hy-Vee, Inc.Lomar Specialty, Director Merchandising
Jan. 2016 - Jan. 2017Des Moines, Iowa AreaLomar is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hy-Vee Inc. We provide Hy-Vee with their specialty and organic products and provide sales and merchandising assistance and product knowledge for today's emerging trends. I create and maintain all natural and organic plan o grams for HyVee's Health Market, our store within a store organic market concept. I approve all new items within Lomar to ensure they meet our companies guidelines, fulfill our vision and provide our customers every opportunity to improve their health and lifestyle. On a weekly basis I work with HyVee's Merchandising team communicating new items and trends within the specialty and organic categories. We also work together on Center Store merchandising initiatives to help fulfill our companies vision. I spend a good portion of my week on the road attending new store sets as well as existing store remodels and Health Market expansion projects. I work over our sales team in the field on these projects along with auditing their stores, looking for missed merchandising opportunities and to see if they were able to sell the stores on our specific distribution push items. On a monthly basis I work alongside HyVee's Vice President of Health Markets on monthly merchandising ideas for the stores. We analyze our next month's ads and allowance deals and put together a packet of sales opportunities for the executives to present to the store directors as a way to grow sales and profit.
Hy-Vee, Inc.Merchandising Specialist
Feb. 2013 - Jan. 2016Des Moines, Iowa AreaAs a Merchandising Specialist at Hy-Vee I am in charge of the continual development of the Plan O Gram process and all product merchandising. I put together SKU Rationalization projects for the Purchasing Department to help maintain the proper SKU assortment in distribution based on the sizes of our sets at retail. I am also now in charge of the beginning and middle stages of store lay out for all new, remodeled and relocated projects with in the company. With this comes the ability to brainstorm new concepts, test new fixtures and be innovative in reviving Center Store and its surrounding departments.
Hy-Vee, Inc.Manager of Perishables
Mar. 2010 - Feb. 2013Lincoln, Nebraska AreaI was the manager in charge of all Perishable departments in the store. Produce, Salad Bar, Bakery, Meat, Delicatessen, Eat In Kitchen, Chinese, Italian, Floral, and the fresh food process in the Fuel Center. My main duty and Manager of Perishables was to act as support and give leadership to departments who may have been struggling for any given reason at any given time and communicate the Director's department goals and expectations to them. I was in charge of making sure all fresh department employees adhered to the our company and store's guidelines when it came to Customer Service and Food Safety. I developed and implemented a store check list of food safety areas of concern to be completed daily and weekly to avoid negative marks when the Food Safely auditor and the State auditors made their visits. I developed and assisted the departments in all in store promotions and marketing tactics. All Holiday decoration and promotions went through me for the planning and placement of the displays and demonstrations. At month and year's end, I assisted in putting together all of the department's inventory as well as, with the help of the Store Operations Manager, put together the entire store's inventory to submit to the Director. If a department fell short of goals, I would walk through the process to ensure everything was accounted for or every short coming had a valid reason for not achieving the goal. I was acting manager in charge of the store in the Directors absence.
Hy-Vee, Inc.Manager of General Merchandise
Apr. 2006 - Feb. 2010Prairie Village, KS and Lincoln, NEHire and train staff for the core General Merchandise departments within the stores I held this position. I was in charge of the store when the Director was absent. I assisted the Perishables and Grocery departments when they needed help, in return they did the same for me. I was in charge of ordering, pricing, merchandising, selling, and inventorying all product sold by my departments. My departments included General Merchandise, Health and Beauty Care, Lawn and Garden, Pharmacy, Wine and Spirits and Fuel Center. I had a team of department managers to take care of the daily tasks and implement any direction given to them by myself or the Director.
Hy-Vee, Inc.Assistant Manager
Jul. 2001 - Apr. 2006
Hy-Vee, Inc.General Merchandise Clerk
Dec. 1998 - Jul. 2001
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