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Customer Service Manager

Location:
Rogers, AR, 72758
Posted:
September 21, 2010

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Resume:

William Christopher "Chris" Strohm

**** ****** ****

Mobile 479-***-****

Rogers, AR 72758 *****.******@***.***

Residence 479-***-****

Top-Tier Sales & Operations Management Professional

With Extensive Experience & Expertise In:

Customer Logistics ... National Account Management ... Supply Chain

Management

Senior-level sales and customer logistics professional responsible for

building and managing the relationship between the $12B Cadbury Division of

Kraft Foods and Cadbury's premiere national account, $405B Walmart and

Sam's Club. Logistics management expert who uses extensive experience in

sales, customer service, manufacturing, purchasing, warehousing, packaging,

and transportation to envision and create mutually-beneficial initiatives

to strengthen the on-going value of the business cooperation for both

Cadbury and Walmart.

Seasoned analytical thinker who championed and implemented a unique

inventory management/stock replenishment program that increased Cadbury's

sales $500K year-to-date and is projected to add $1.5M in incremental sales

per year, with even higher annual sales benefits to retail market partner

Walmart/Sam's Club. Operations management expert who introduced and

championed the utilization of the "Cost to Serve" methodology with Welch

Foods, Inc., to focus the company on improving profits by managing the

costs of doing business with customers. Recognized by colleagues for his

unwavering honesty and integrity, exceptional leadership and inter-personal

skills, proven negotiating prowess, and the ability to create a continuum

of innovative approaches to improve revenues and profitability.

Relationship Management ... Performance Management ... Strategic Account

Management Profit Improvements ... P&L Management ... Negotiations ... Team

Leadership & Motivation

Process Improvement ... Change Management ... Project Management ...

Strategic Planning

Team Building ... Training & Development ... Executive Presentations ...

Strategic Sourcing

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

NYSE:KFT Kraft Foods, Cadbury PLC Division, Bentonville, AR . 2006-Present

(Formerly Cadbury Schweppes)

$40B Kraft Foods acquired $12B Cadbury in February of 2010 creating the 2nd

largest food company in the world. The Cadbury Division of Kraft Foods is

the largest confectionary company in the world.

Customer Logistics Manager, Bentonville, AR

Charged with senior-level sales responsibility for management of all supply

chain and customer logistics to grow the $300M Walmart and Sam's Club

account that represent about 25% of Cadbury's total US sales. Calls on

clients' Replenishment Managers to maximize sales and manage key

performance indicators that are important to the customer including

replenishable in-stocks, inventory turns, retail inventory productivity,

must arrive by date, on-time delivery, and reduction of retail store-level

inventory. Creates a strong partnership with key internal colleagues to

maximize collaboration on packaging and product needs to maintain market

leadership.

. Instrumental in the implementation of a new inventory/automated

reordering process that increased sales to Walmart $500K year-to-date

and is projected to increase annual revenues by $1.5M.

. Utilized extensive merchandising and packaging expertise as member of

team that formulated an innovative method of displaying boxed chewing

gum that is projected to decrease inventory by 40% and increase store

facings by 30%, substantially changing the way boxed gum is sold.

. Key player in developing improved gum packaging design that reduced

the cost of displaying gum at the cash registers by $1.7M.

. Employed seasoned customer relationship management skills to

continually grow mission-critical revenues and profits from Walmart

and Sam's Club while managing the potential effects of turnover of 19

Replenishment Managers at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club since 2006.

Page 1

William Christopher "Chris" Strohm . *****.******@***.***

Welch Foods Inc., Concord, MA . 2004-2006

$700M Private growers cooperative with approximately 1,000 employees that

sell Concord (purple) and Niagara (white) grape juice products.

Manager, Customer Logistic Solutions

Senior sales responsibility for selling logistic solutions to about 30

customers in the drug, mass, club, value, DSD, and food services segments

than represented one-third of total revenues. Member of Special Markets

Team who led key customer meetings to leverage strong service metrics,

discuss value added opportunities, and understand implications of new

customer logistic initiatives.

. Introduced and implemented a "Cost-to-Serve" process that caused the

company to analyze and determine the cost of selling to each customer

from a supply chain perspective, enabling the company to increase

profitability by improving transactional efficiencies.

. Spearheaded the relocation and re-engineering of the Logistics

Coordinator Department from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts. Hired and

trained new employees and completed the successful relocation within 6

months.

Clorox Sales Company, Alpharetta, GA . 1994-2004

NYSE:CLX Leading manufacturer and marketer of consumer products with FY

2009 revenues of $5.5B.

Specialty Channel Supply Chain Manager, Alpharetta, GA

Customer Service Team Leader, Norcross, GA

Materials, Quality, & Purchasing Manager, Pearl, MS

Production Supervisor, Pearl, MS

Promoted through positions of increasing responsibility in production,

materials, quality and purchasing management, and customer service to

become Specialty Channel Supply Chain Manager with responsibility for 32

major customers in the drug, home and hardware, dollar, convenience,

department specialty, and military channels. Created and implemented

innovative supply chain solutions to increase sales and reduce operating

costs.

. Saved over $200M annually by developing a single-point pricing

strategy in the drug channel that reduced pricing deductions and

improved business processes from the customers' perspective.

. Key player in achieving a 30% growth in sales from key customers in 2

years by co-developing an innovative quarter pallet display chassis in

the home and hardware channel.

. Reduced Clorox warehousing and transportation costs by collaborating

with value channel customers to develop a unique distribution network.

. Sold customized backhaul program in the dollar channel that yielded

over $1M of annual revenue to customers and created high-levels of

customer satisfaction and loyalty.

. Directed 12 Order Management Specialists and Continuous Replenishment

Analysts as Customer Service Team Leader.

. Administered a $15M purchasing budget and sourced products both

domestically and internationally.

. Spearheaded quality improvements and delivered cost savings of $800K

by partnering with vendors on quality and cost initiatives.

. Led and directed a production workforce of up to 100 employees.

. Improved production efficiency from 55% to 85% by training and

empowering production operators and the maintenance group.

Career Notes: Additional management experience as Plant Manager, Hickory

Springs Mfg. Co.; Plant Manager, Thonet-Madison Furniture Industries;

Production Supervisor, Pilliod, Inc.; and Branch Manager/Customer Sales

Manager/Production Manager, with Carpenter Company.

EDUCATION & CREDENTIALS

BBA, Management

Mississippi State University,

Starkville, MS Page 2



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