Experience

Castle Brands

• United States
• Beverage Manufacturing
• 1 - 100 Employee

• State Manager, Western Region

  • Jan 2018 - Present

  Castle Brands (acquired by Pernod-Ricard, 2019)• • Brand portfolio & Commercial Wholesaler management in 14 markets / 12 states: No. CA, So. CA, OR, No. NV, So. NV, WA, AK, HI, ID, WY, MT, UT, AZ and NM• Responsibility includes all Castle Brands activity in these markets: Wholesaler, Chain and General Market activity.• Brand activation included distillery visits with Buyers, bourbon dinners, WhiskyFest, Whiskies of the World, SF Rum Festival, yacht club sponsorships, tasting demo’s at Retail and On-Premise• Organized three Virtual Bartending sessions for Google/Stadia HQ in September 2020. Created, coordinated and managed program; hired professional bartender to conduct• Responsible for delivering annual sales, depletion based P&L’s and profitability growth plan while driving market share growth• Redesigned route to market (RTM) from DSD to Warehouse-Direct throughout the West on Gosling’s Ginger Beer• Build best in class relationships with Buyers and Commercial Teams; managing inventory levels, driving distribution, retail execution, price management, communication and share of mind• Realized significant YoY growth of Barrel sales: BevMo!, Total Wine & More, Costco, WFM, GM On & Off Premise• Manage cross-functional projects requiring participation from Promotional companies, shipping, POS and Product warehouses, Buyer requirements, Distributor constraints and inventory logistics• Incentive creation for SGWS Teams and Management based on brand role, Account(s), channel and/or target metrics (cases / accounts sold / growth rate / etc.)• Annual Business Review creation and delivery to Wholesaler Executive Management teams from Norcal, Socal, NV & WA. SWOT approach with actionable, achievable recommendations aligned to Market and Customer opportunities• Built On & Off Premise annual funding calendars for Scan & CQD supports



BevMo!

• Various Leadership and Buying roles

  • Jun 2016 - Oct 2017

  • Single Point Accountability for all aspects of the Wine Business Unit ($400M annually) from June 2016 – October 2017• Strategic initiatives focused on rebalancing the sales mix in order to improve the P&L: centralized warehouse integration, Own Brands private label wine development, EVP partnership and KVI strategy to drive share and traffic • Weekly / periodic / quarterly departmental and executive reviews for the CEO and BOD. Included overview of financials, market share reporting, Own Brand development and financials, and inventory control metrics• New Store development, Merch Cal (promotional / display program) planning & execution, 2018 Wine Reset management, all Marketing activity, Aged inventory, resolve Operations District Manager weekly recap concerns• Daily activities included: sales / financial review for the previous day, promotional pricing changes, Supplier & Distributor sales meetings, personnel concerns, project development and management, reprioritizing for the Team• Tactical execution of all Wine Team efforts: Promotional display plans, Distributor communications, programming initiatives, invoicing, Holiday meetings & programming, product mix balance, New & Disco item calendar• Collaborated with Marketing, Operations, Planning & Allocations, Real Estate, Legal, Accounting, IT and HR• Managed all aspects of the Spirits business for BevMo!: CA, AZ & WA. All stores ($380M annually) from 2010 – 2016• Aggressively collaborated with Marketing and Supplier resources & initiatives to promote Mixology market-wide• Generated positive comp sales and profit each year for six years through controlled costs, pricing and promotions• Created & implemented several tools and processes to help manage the business and workload



Southern Wine & Spirits of California

• Wholesale Apparel and Sewing Supplies
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Category Manager

  • Mar 2008 - Mar 2010

  In-house Category Manager with the Diageo Vendor Partner team supporting the Safeway National Spirits Director.Individual focus is the 521 California Safeway stores: sku optimizations, cluster management, schematic creation and management, data management and reporting and market insights.Conduct deep financial analysis every 4 weeks (IRI update) of category performance for the primary Safeway markets (Norcal, Socal, Arizona, Illinois) down to brand level vs year ago and ROM. Provide recommendations to Safeway Category Director for sales / volume / profitability / image improvement.Manage the entire sku optimization process for all 808 CA stores for the Diageo Team. Work with Safeway Store Stocking to meet all deadlines and technical requirements. Assist with the creation of Sales decks for the Diageo Sales Team for every Innovation launch in the past 19 months.Category management focus brands: Johnny Walker, Tanqueray, Smirnoff, Baileys, Captain Morgan, Don Julio, Ketel One, Gordon’s Vodka & Gin, Popov Vodka, Crown Royal, Bushmills, Oban, Ardbeg, Talisker, Buchanan’s.



Safeway

• Retail
• 700 & Above Employee

• National Category Manager / Analyst

  • Oct 2000 - Mar 2008

  National Category Manager / Analyst – Carbonated Soft Drinks, Salty Snacks, Spirits and Beer Categories • Conducted Post Ad Analysis every Wednesday using Business Tracker Daily Scan application. Discussed results with my Director to determine how the sales, margins or profits could be improved by using different price points, bundling options, timing, display, ad versioning, etc.• Planned and executed the 2003 Spirit Gift Pack program. The Wine & Spirit Team selected the appropriate Gift Pack items in late May 2003. • Completed the 2003 SCOP for Spirits in all Divisions. Schematics were created with the new product mix in November, and implemented in the January 04 cycle. I used IRI reports generated by Diageo to determine the items Safeway needs to keep, and those items that should be discontinued. ROM data was also incorporated to search for items that are performing well in the market, but are currently not part of the Safeway portfolio.• Managed several speed-to-shelf new item introductions. Launch slides were created, approved and distributed to all stores, and 3 bottles of each were shipped via PDS. (Spirits, 2003 – 2004)• Created and managed the Promotional Plan for Spirits from July 2003 – May 2004. Rather than building a promotional calendar based on scan offers dictated by the vendors, I rotated the strongest items with the highest lift indexing products and seasonality trends.• Proofed the ads every week for every category I managed: Spirits, Beer, Carbonated Soft Drinks and Salty Snacks.• Negotiated additional scan allowances with the vendors to support the ads. I would call the vendors for every ad item to contract acceptable allowances.• Created the merchandising planner each month for the stores, and also managed the selections for the Meds (end cap displays) every week.• Generated the estimates for each promotional vehicle using PACS or Business Tracker.

• Team Leader / Price Analyst

  • Oct 2000 - Mar 2003

  Corporate Retail PricingSupervised eleven Assoc. Price Analysts for the Norcal Division prior to Centralization.Assisted Price Analysts in maximizing gross and retail integrity through new review processes established by my previous Director.Supervised Cost Change, GAP and Price Modeling activity for the 5 Price Analysts and 11 APA’s.Actively participated in Candy SCOP – University in Sept., Session in January 2002 in Arcadia, CA.Assisted in the interviewing, hiring and training of 30+ Retail Pricing staff members for Centralization.Created visual maps for several APA tasks in an effort to simplify the CMS system and its many screens.Attended Frontline training courses for management and interpersonal development.Conducted Price Modeling and general Price Analyst training sessions for interested APA’s.Maintained Price Analyst responsibilities in the Household & Pet categories as a Team Leader.



Prism Merchandising Group

• United States
• Retail
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Merchandise Planner

  • Jan 1997 - Oct 2000

  • Managed implementation of the multiple planograms for 340 Longs Drugs stores in all core categories.• Sent weekly communication to all stores in program regarding the upcoming work for the teams to complete in their stores. Interfaced with Category Managers to detail the planograms for implementation in all stores every two weeks. Worked closely with the Longs Drugs Merchandise Department; Category Managers, Planning Managers and Store Managers.



Longs Drugs

• Retail
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Pricing Analyst

  • Jan 1995 - Jan 1997

  Selected as member of a Market Pricing development team to determine pricing structure for all stores rather than left to individual Store Managers based on competitor retails. Sixteen-month project with successful results followed by maintenance, troubleshooting and enhancements.Coordinated efforts with Category Management to improve department cost-to-retail integrity.

• Department Manager

  • Jan 1987 - Jan 1995

  Worked in the Longs Drugs stores in a variety of capacities during these 8 years. (Cashier, Janitor, Department Clerk, Department Manager). First Liquor Dept. I managed was