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Sales Manager

Location:
Cordova, TN
Posted:
May 07, 2017

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Resume:

Ben Woznica

acz6jh@r.postjobfree.com

My career consists of a highly successful track record of achieving sales and gross profit results in Category & Operations Management and P&L Management. Excelling in Vendor Negotiations and Procurement; focused on developing sustainable relationships with manufacturers, brokers and vendors to deliver best costs and lowest retail pricing to customers through effective negotiations, rebates, valued added offers. Utilizing IRI and Neilson data, coupled with a firm understanding of product trends has proven to deliver best in class planograms, designed to maximize space to sales, days of supply and ease for store operators to implement, while staying in stock of key sales drivers.

Marketing Department Director, I delivered year on year growth of 10%+ sales and 3%+ gross margin, establishing positive working relationships with vendors, producing best in class program for customers. My teams of 5 Category Managers, delivered best in class programs, delivering best in industry rebate/funding programs while delivering organic sales with new program development.

Category Manger for Center Store Grocery – I have established programs bringing manufacturers and brokers together in a mutual effort to present the best product offering to customers, delivering on the sales and gross margin needs of the company, while providing best in class retail pricing, couponing, SNAP benefits and sale pricing to customers. I have consolidated and implemented processes for managing the weekly and holiday ad feature process, driving full vendor support for “sale” pricing, coupling FSI’s, electronic couponing and SNAP benefit offerings to offer highly competitive advertised retails.

Category Manager for Packaged Beverage, innovation and creativity has led to highly successful incremental growth of merchandise and fuel sales. Focused on Packaged Beverage, Tobacco Center Store and General Merchandise with retails sales over $150MM annually. Innovation has been the hallmark of my Category Management and Procurement roles, I have grown sales and profit while designing proprietary programs and private label products. I excel at managing SKU rationalization and Inventory Investment to maximize profitability.

Operations Manager, Sandwich Chef - managed a division of 34 Sandwich shops, Stop & Go – managed a team of 13 C-Store Directors, improving Food Service offering and customer service. ExxonMobil - supervised 7Pizza Hut and 6 Blimpie franchised kiosks, hot, cold & frozen dispensed beverages; made to order and prepared hot & cold food service. My Food Service experience includes experience as a Chef & Catering Manager and a restaurant owner.

My goal is to use my skills at developing innovative methods to bring new products and excitement to consumers; capturing incremental market share, sales and profit growth.

Core Competencies

P&L Management

Training,

Conflict Resolution,

Negotiations,

End user analysis,

Resource Management,

Cost Analysis,

Cross functional management,

Productivity Improvement,

Vendor Relationships,

Team Development,

Operations Management,

Cost Control,

Strategic Planning,

EVA management and modeling,

SAP

EDI

B2B

major category focus

Alcohol Beverage

Non-Alcohol Packaged Beverages

Dairy, Ice Cream

DSD Salty Snack, Bread & Cake

General Merchandise

Trucker / Travel Center Merchandise

Customer Service

Negotiations

Cost Analysis

Vendor Relationships

Cost Control

EVA (Economic Value Added) Modeling

Career Accomplishments

Fred’s Discount/ Dollar Stores Memphis, TN 01/2016 – 11-2016

Fred’s is a regional discount grocery/ general merchandise chain consisting of 585 locations servicing small towns and communities in 15 Southeastern US states. Store size averages 25,000 – 40,000 sq. ft., with 304 locations having full service Pharmacy offerings.

Category Manager / Merchant

Tobacco Category

Reconciled cigarette /cigar inventory; remodeled planograms by market region, reduced inventory

by 15% while increasing weekly carton sales by 10% through “right sizing” inventory of prime brands.

Introduced revised planogram of Cigars, OTP, E-Cigs and Vaping. Incremental growth of non-cigarette averaging $100 PSW.

Refrigerated & Frozen Grocery, Dairy & Ice Cream

Executed a revamp of the Refrigerated Grocery category by delegating a team of Vendors/Brokers utilizing Neilson and IRI data to revise product offerings, replacing low volume/high waste product with faster turning inventory resulting in a 3% lift in gross margin with a 5% increase in retail sales. Executed a revamp of the Frozen Grocery category using same process with a 15% in retail sales – a direct result of building a strong, sustainable relationship with manufacturers & brokers to bring customers the product they want and introducing brands/products supported by FSI’s, SNAP and continued manufacturer support. Established and implemented new guidelines for vendor support and participation in weekly ads.

Executed process collaboration between in-house Planogram team and Vendor planogram teams to develop process for updating POG’s, reducing labor costs and executing new product offering to stores quicker.

Alcohol Beverages

Established a process for creating a company infa-structure of key departments to bring the Alcohol Category to Fred’s. Developed relationship with Anheuser-Busch and Gallo Wine at the national level to manage by-store planogram, product assortment based on regional sales.

Dairy, Ice Cream and Grocery Category -

Addressed issues of waste and service issues with Dairy Vendors, developed process to monitor and analyze sales vs. deliveries. Improved in-stocks with a 4% sales increase

Vendor Relations

Implemented a Vendor Performance Module; developed a semi-annual Vendor meeting process to update

issues, enhance relationships; delivering best in class offerings to customers.

Rebate Management

Executed a process for monitoring vendor rebate performance; addressing a failure to ensure all rebate dollars were being collected. Captured over $200K in missed rebate filing from 2015.

CEFCO Convenience Stores Temple, TX 2010-2015

Senior Category Manager / Truck Stop Merchandising Manager

Packaged Beverage Category $100M annual sales

Develop customized “mix & match” program for import beer & craft beer in 250 stores, increasing category sales by 10% with a 1.5% gross margin increase.

Utilizing space management tools, effectively reduced product inventory by 15% while increasing sales & margin, focusing on days of supply and SKU level management

Center Store Grocery Implemented “shelf grocery set” with innovative test program together with Kraft, General Mills P&G and McLane’s. Project delivered a 20% increase in retail sales with improved margins. Increase customer counts and 25%+ increase in SNAP usage.

Implemented a Hispanic Grocery Set in select stores, which delivered increase customer counts, customer recognition of being a “neighborhood store”. Ethic specialty products proved to be an important consumer offering.

Sourcing Category Manager General Merchandise / Electronic Services

Implemented a process sourcing new product and developing relationships with DSD suppliers to deliver high quality merchandise with many vendors engaged in SBT (scan based trading), reducing ROCI and Operations inventory variation concerns.

Truck Stop / Travel Center Merchandising Manager - 3,000 sq. ft., Trucker Merchandise section

Vendor Relations – Developed and implemented Vendor Management program utilizing elements of 7 Steps for Strategic Sourcing.

Rebate Management

Managed over 80 vendors to ensure best rebate offerings.

Private Label Product Development

Developed and implemented Private Label Water and Energy Drink program

Exxon Mobil Convenience Stores Fairfax, VA

Center Store Category Manager 1997-2010

Attained 10% growth in annual sales and profit for the Automotive, Edible & Non Edible Grocery, Paper/Pet/Cleaning, Health & Beauty, General Merchandise, Seasonal & Promotional Categories. Using Neilson and internal scan data, re-designed “space to sales” of “center store” categories to maximize ROI, utilizing auto-replenishment and effective vendor management.

DSD Snack Cakes, Chips

Sales Counter Merchandise Management

Franchise & Dealer Relations

Store Supply Procurement Manger

Responsible for Procurement of supplies $10MM annually utilizing the 7 Steps for Strategic Sourcing

Creation: Whilst many companies work from standard contracts, they do have to be created in the first place and they often need to be changed as negotiations progress.

Negotiation: Of the contracts to ensure that, the best possible contract is available to both parties.

Adherence: To the contracts and all of its sections and aims. Service Level Agreements: (SLA) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are set to manage the day-to-day performance of the vendor.

Managing Changes: that may be required as the relationship changes and problems arise.

Documenting: Any changes that may have been agreed.

Analyzing: The benefits that accrue or may be available from the contract.

Implementation – Following through on the 1’st six steps

Responsible for Rebate and Funding Management of $3.5MM annual contract

Develop SKU management rationalization program

Introduced several “new to industry” products and program

RUTTERS Convenience Stores York, PA

Marketing & Advertising Manager

1994 – 1997

Negotiated new Tobacco Contracts with all 4 major vendors resulting in average per store weekly growth of 15CPW. Margin dollars improved by 17% - a result of sales and rebate funding improvement.

Improved Candy/Snack Sales by over 20% by building relationships with major manufacturers, gaining planogram and new product support.

Responsible for Marketing and Advertising of 52 store C/G Chain.

Responsible for 3 buyers and Advertising Assistant

Received several awards for creative radio advertising

Responsible for P&L Sales and Gross Profit budget and Advertising budget

Garb-Ko, Inc. / 7 Eleven Saginaw, MI 1989 – 1994

Senior Category Manager Alcohol and Non- Alcohol Beverage Manager for 150 7-Elevens in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana & Kentucky.

•DSD Vendor Category Manager – Bread, Cake, Salty Snacks, Dairy, Ice

•Category sales growth of 10%+ profit improvement each year in position

•Responsible for training new Franchisees in marketing programs

National Convenience Stores Houston, TX 1982 - 1989

Category Manager / Marketing Analyst / Distribution Manager

•Wholesale and Distribution Coordinator. Developed process to analysis promotional performance for Category Managers. After developing this process, I presented a proposal to the VP of Marketing to establish a new position to get programs and promotions implemented across all stores.

•Non-Foods,GM,FBC,Seasonal&PromotionalMerchandise

- Managed “Frequent Shopper Program” w/ Black & Decker Tools This program delivered just over 500,000 power tools to 700 participating locations. This program increased fuel volume by 2% and merchandise sales by 5%.

Sandwich Chef Houston TX 1980 - 1982

District Manager District Manager for chain of Sandwich Shops in office buildings. Supervised 32 locations in greater Houston, TX market. Responsible for P&L of each location. Responsible for hiring Store Managers, employees and service drivers. Responsible for payroll and operating expense

Methodist Hospital Houston TX 1978 - 1980

Food Service Manager

•Responsible for managing employee and public guest cafeteria and 24 hour Grill operation in major hospital. Supervised 3 Managers, 8 assistant mangers, staff of 40 employees.

BDJ’S Deli Southfield, MI 1976- 1978

Owner / Manager

Part Owner in a Deli / Sandwich Shop seating 90 customers. Responsible for supervising kitchen, deli and grill staff. Responsible for catering sales

Alban’s Bottle & Basket Birmingham, MI 1973 - 1976

Chef / Catering Manager

Responsible for managing food preparation and all catering order for $10MM food sales restaurant.

Education

Executive Business Management University of Michigan 1992

Business Management Saginaw Valley State College 1990



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