Experience

Cermak Fresh Market

• United States
• Retail Groceries
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Director Of Purchasing

  • Jul 2022 - Present



La Bodega Ltd.

• United States
• Wholesale
• 1 - 100 Employee

• General Manager & much much more

  • Mar 2020 - Jul 2022



FIESTA MARKET

• United States
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Grocery Buyer/Marketing

  • Sep 2009 - Mar 2020

  After a successful tenure in wholesale purchasing, I wanted to transition into retail. A customer of mine owned Fiesta Market and recruited me to create a new role as Grocery Purchasing Director to help expand the organization. Currently I manage the Grocery, Ethnic, Dairy, Frozen, and Deli departments. In addition to the challenges of developing systems and processes in this role, I was tasked with modifying a company culture that was resistant to change. Over the last 9 years, the company has experienced growth that has far outpaced industry standards. > I masterminded a warehouse distribution program. We are able to ‘bridge buy” over 900 SKUs and was able to increase margins greatly as a result. > I created the Asian line from the ground up, which not only has expanded by double digits in sales growth for 8 consecutive years but has helped position Fiesta as the ‘retailer-of-choice” for ethnic foods in the Chicago-land area > I partnered with a cheese supplier to purchase radio advertising in bulk, which landed additional “prime” spots and saved over 18% in advertising costs. > I developed several key marketing initiatives including our vendor-sponsored Christmas time calendar giveaway that increases brand awareness year-round.



Dearborn Wholesale Grocers

• Greater Chicago Area

• Director of Hispanic Grocery

  • Aug 1994 - Sep 2009

  I joined Regency Wholesale in 1992 as a Sales Manager. In 1994, Regency was acquired by Dearborn, and I was continued in my role as a Sales Manager until 1999 when my role was expanded to include Purchasing, and I promoted into a Business Development Manager. In 2004, I ascended to the Direct0r of Grocery and was in charge of more than $250M of purchasing and sales > I spearheaded the development, launch, and management of newly created Hispanic and Asian product lines that grew to over $100M annually in revenue > After successfully creating the ethnic line, I was asked to take over our stagnant private label brand. Through intense data analysis of historical sales and our product mix, I retooled our product line, generating annual sales increases of over 25% for 3 consecutive years > I developed an online ordering system that replaced a 400-page order guide. This system allowed sales reps to focus on their customers instead of performing mundane administrative tasks > I created the Pharmacy grocery vertical and landed CVS, a $5M/year account generating a 19% profit in the first year