Merchandising and Marketing Professional, who worked for largest Food Distributor in US and currently with regional independent to bring knowledge on negotiation and vendor relationships with all aspects of purchasing and merchandising covered.
Worked with largest US food service distributor to roll out Category Management process from ground up in one of largest distribution centers in US. With this comes large brand focus on how to push customers and sales in the direction of getting the brand out and in front as much as possible. Used data and analytics to determine best practices to move forward and increase profits and margins
I have worked with hundreds of manufacturers over the years on getting new products to the market and what it takes to keep those products viable in the marketplace, through promotions and exposure
My daily role is to negotiate with food manufacturers to obtain potions in marketplace that give us advantage. How to work with and understand what is needed to grow business on both side is most important part of negotiations. If deal is too lopsided on either end negotiations on the next round will be harder to manage as other side wants to get back what was lost. Fair and equal process provides the best outcome for all parties involved.
Being a leader of 7 talented buyers is no easy feat to make sure that all people are pulling in the direction of sales growth and margin expansion. Daily I am working with my team to allow them the freedom to do what is needed, but having the oversight to make sure that their short and long term goals are that of the company and the expansion that we are looking to achieve.
