Category Advisor (newly created position with company)

2/2010 – Wilton Canada

Mission statement:

Support the Wal-Mart business by close collaboration with buyer and retail team to lead fact-based recommendations and analysis and coordinate projects across the vendors represented in the Craft category.

Worked with buying team to re-define store floor plans and better align merchandise plan to store characteristics. Reorganized new category structures and aligned adjacencies to match store plans by utilizing additional assortment compartmentalization.

Created line reviews and provided leadership to manage other vendors in category meet scheduled timelines with key deliverables.

Worked with buyer to develop assortment strategy and then created the modular plans in coordination with the Modular team and vendors represented.

Cross functionally communicated best practices and resolved business issues resulting in new standards and better relationships. Category role helped grow sales by 40% for everyone.

Retail relies on leadership with cross functional experience.

Category Management is the platform which enables leadership.

A good retail planner is a generalist understanding that all aspectsof retail sales and marketing lead to the store.

Store level execution is where the rubber meets the road…or where the shopper makes the trip decision.

Leadership

True Category Leadership creates the atmosphere for:

•Growth --------Both Retail and Manufacturer

•Collaboration---Work together to create seamless shopping experience.

•Communication----Establish consistent benchmarks for Success

•Win - Win opportunities--Best shopping experience is the common goal!

The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the teamTeamwork: Simply stated, it is less me and more we –as a category!!!

Teamwork

Ken DaileyMember Services Director and Share Group Facilitator

kdailey@cpgcatnet.org

Hallmark Cards, IncCerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma/FEMSA CervezaARAMARKHJ Heinz, USA (includes other countries)Johnson & Johnson IBS Soft SolutionsPHILLIPS ELECTRONICSAcco Brands CorporationReckitt BenckiserEnergizer

Some Companies in the Association:

Advantage Sales & Marketing

Pharmavite (Nature made vitamins)

Bacardi USA

PepsiCo North American Beverages

PepsiCo Americas Foods

Cosmic Solutions Americas, LLC

Kimberly-Clark Corp. (KCC)

Gerber / Nestle Infant Nutrition

Nestle Purina PetCare Company Anheuser-Busch/In-BevConstellation/Centerra E & J Gallo Winery Foster's Wine Estates - HEB MexicoKellogg USA Mars Snackfood US (formerly Masterfoods)Sara Lee Corp. Wrigley Jr Co.

Experience able to communicate and providedirection to CEO/CMO/COO positions is rare!

Even rarer is the ability to create bridges between Sales/Marketing and Merchandising/Operations.

Have you Changed the way companies go to market?Have you Changed how shoppers buy products?Have you Changed how organizations market products?Have you Changed how organizations function?

Change

Merchandise Analyst 2/2006 - 2009 Kinney Drugs, Gouverneur, New York

New developmental position created to design processes, analysis, and make recommendations to improve sales and profit per foot in the Total Store environment. Strategic goal: Improve shareholder value. Create a category management foundation to align merchandising and provide a fact-based collaborative platform to establish profitable vendor relations. Created and refined analytical tools and organized focused IT efforts to provide POS information in various formats to

match best practices and allow effective category management and business planning. Organized and led Collaborative Category Management initiatives to focus on strategic external support and insights to

grow category sales and profit with a collective effort. Worked with Buyers and Marketing Administration to enable design and use of various reporting methods and analysis. Worked with AC Nielsen to secure contractual agreements for development of a Market Specific Trade Area to enable

collaborative sharing of information between key partners, identify opportunity gaps by assessing category performance and customer satisfaction through POS sales.

Accomplishments: Created Best Practices 120 day process templates using internal analysis and external benchmarking best practices. Created Dashboard reporting with POS by upc/day/store and using custom defined clusters to compare and contrast. Created Best Practice Merchandising practices with operations used to create a consistent look and feel for the shopper. Created Inventory and Turns analysis of the FE categories to develop GMROII comparisons. Created AD HOC reporting tools for viewing distribution and sales to compare sell through. Created Analytics and templates for tracking Seasonal Sell through by item and by Store. Created Daily/Weekly/and Monthly reports and quadrant analysis to compare and contrast changes to the total store. Developed the gap analysis for choosing the expanded product categories for the new prototype stores. Created Benchmarks and template to track the effect of changes and quantify results in a business forecast.

Read between the Titles!

Who really understands how everything works together?

Who really understands how everything works together?

Who really understands how everything works together?

Analytical StrategyData Warehouse

Basic data points

Storelevel

Corporate level

Down to skulevel

daily

weekly

monthly

Regional level

quantity sold

price

cost

On hands

Year history

2 Year history

Customized access availableBuckets needed

Who really understands how everything works together?

Who really understands how everything works together?

Who really understands how everything works together?

Manager of Category Management 8/2004 - 10/2005 Rubbermaid FoodService, Huntersville, NC

Hired to develop the structure for fact-based "Best Practices" category management team to support the marketing organization. Worked to identify, rationalize, manage and communicate 70% change in product assortment. Accomplishments: Created Best Practices fact-based category reviews and worked to establish category leadership in retail accounts. Established Category Captain leadership in various retailer accounts.

Patient advocate1/2003 - 12/2005

Accomplishments:•Successfully provided fact-based analysis and directions to Neurosurgeons and teams changing prognosis.•Created team environment and brought together all major medical disciplines to focus on common goals.•Organized and managed high level meetings of Medical executives and doctors to communicate progress.•Efforts helped to facilitate new patient services offered by key Neurosurgical team.•Key learning were communication/collaboration are the key component of any complex business.

Compressed (zipped) Folder

The decision

Manager of Category Development 3/1998 - 3/2002 C.B. Fleet, Lynchburg, VA

New developmental position created to design processes, analysis, and make recommendations to improve sales and profit through the application of Best Practices category management and merchandising in collaboration with retail partners.

Accomplishments:

Created, developed, trained, and provided strategic category and business plans for national sales force. Worked with “Syndicated Data Providers to assess and organize data structures.” Provided fact-based assessments of market/brand sales strategies to grow national and regional business. Lead category recommendations and trading partner relationships to gain shelf space and distribution by account. Category Table Captain and validated for major Food and Drug trade retailers. Reorganized Nielsen databases and category structures to reflect change from brand to category views. Trained administrative help and saved time and cost by streamlining corporate communications. Provided fact-based assessments of market/brand sales strategies to grow national and regional business. Trained international business units on Best Practices Space Management and Sales techniques (Internationally!)

National Field Merchandising Manager/Marketing Planner 1/1996 - 3/1999 Osram Sylvania, Danvers, Massachusetts

New position created to satisfy a need for merchandising expertise and closer contact with field operations and develop a consistent merchandising strategy across all accounts.

Accomplishments:

Developed merchandising and Point of Purchase for major DIY customers. Lowes Companies Inc. on site. Created and Pioneered Cross-Merchandising techniques and programs in the lighting category. Devised training programs and materials for field use. Analyzed and provided recommendations on product assortments to maximize sales and return on inventory. Category Leader for Lowes, Rookie of the Year (Osram Sylvania Worldwide) and grew business by over 50%. Developed Key Merchandising and Point of Purchase materials working with Director of Marketing. Created Cross Merchandising Video presentation for field use. Shown at hardware show.

Territory Manager 1/1992 - 3/1996 Osram Sylvania, Danvers, Massachusetts

Accomplishments: Grew territory sales by 25% and managed sales of 8MM in largest territory. Rookie of the Year - Developed, Presented, and Implemented Cross-Merchandising Program in largest account,

Lowes, Co. Inc. contributing to 25% comp store sales increases. Merchandising Team - Developed Point of Purchase materials and concepts. Planned and implemented corporate marketing strategies in the field.

Developed and presented training programs to highlight merchandising at retail level and conduced workshops

Education 6/1987 University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida Bachelor's Degree BS Advertising Delta Associates Category Management

Skills AC Nielsen Floor planning, AC Nielsen Nitro, AC Nielsen Space Planning, Sequel Business Intelligence, JDA ProSpace, MARKETMAX, MS Office. Key skill the ability to problem solve, learn and or develop tools needed to accomplish mission and tasks.

Affiliations: Category Management Association.

Summary Consistently taken on new, untested and open ended roles and defined success through overachieving vs goals and objectives. Demonstrated leadership roles in sales/marketing utilized key skills to create, analyze and develop strategies to change the way companies sell to consumers. The roles have facilitated positive change and exerted collaborative influence strongly impacting the success of the people, companies, and organizations across both retail and manufacturers and cross functionally across sales, marketing, merchandising, and operations.

Additional References available upon request:

Who really understands how everything works together?

Facebook information?I don’t really use face-book but below is a pictorial view into my personal behavior:

A lot changes over 10 yrs

I’ll never be able to repeat this success!It all starts with education!

Healthy lifestyle

My alte

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s an

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est frien

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Bro and sisters