Kenneth Lucas II

Dallas, TX ***** 720-***-**** ad4pnw@r.postjobfree.com

Summary

Leadership experience in international business partnerships, vendor negotiations, gap analysis, sourcing, product development and branding. A skilled merchant who conceptualizes private label marketing platforms and strategies. Identifies design and color trends, and successfully manages the roll-out of new products achieving over $1Billion in sales. Adept at budget planning and revenue accountability. Select Professional Experience

Michaels, Global Sourcing Manager, Irving, TX 2021-Present

● In '23 oversee a $160M spend in Kids Crafts, leveraged the vendor matrix to negotiate $3M in cost savings, an 81% YOY improvement, met Country of Origin goals, and re-shored $3M COGS to USA

● In ‘22 oversaw $300M spend and negotiated $6M in savings in frames, storage, and paper crafts

● Secure surety of supply, mitigate tariff and commodity impact, lower costs via strategic partnerships and rebids, research and evaluate new vendors, develop and execute category level sourcing strategy for USA and China team, mentoring, and supervise one direct report Mid-States Distributing, Category Manager, Sourcing Manager, Fort Worth, TX 2019-2021

● Improved lawn and garden category revenue by $7.7M and 47% YOY in 2021 and by 27% in 2020

● Guide and direct private brand sourcing projects through NPD stage-gate, lowered costs, increased margins, locate new factories and build overseas partnerships, report on trends, competition gaps, product and feature analysis, and create tech packs

● Introduced two new private brands - Harvest King Select (Sprayers) and Craftworx (BBQ Pellets)

● Steer contract negotiations on new projects and rebids, sales, financial analysis, assortment building, pivot tables, and Microsoft ERP

Global Outdoors, Inc., Senior Director Product Development, Mooresville, NC 2017-2018

● Forged innovative and strategic sourcing partnerships in Vietnam which led to new category representation in outdoor patio furniture, and B2C revenue streams on Lowes.com and Amazon.com using Jungle Scout for research and opportunity identification

● Managed and led a product development and industrial design team, set timelines, identified trends for category development, built product line extensions, developed item cost, and created technical specification sheet, research new materials and substrates in outdoor living products Daymon Worldwide, Onsite Business Manager, Carlisle, PA 2016-2017

● Reduced the number of seasonal vendors by 20% through redundancy depletion, built seasonal general merchandise assortments, and increased seasonal margins by 15% via open bid negotiations Wal-Mart, Product Development Manager, Bentonville, AR 2012-2016

● Amplified private label sales by double digits and achieved a 7% increase in YOY resin planter sales

● Developed and rebranded SKUs for new market platforms Expert Grill, Expert Gardener, Hyper Tough, and Mainstays totaling over $1Billion in sales

● Created qualitative and quantitative reports on color, trends, design, and competition gaps offering recommendations and action plans for continuous improvement Kenneth Lucas II

Dallas, TX 75204 720-***-**** ad4pnw@r.postjobfree.com Natural Grocers-Vitamin Cottage, Grocery Manager, Dillon, CO 2010-2011

● Boosted department sales by 11% YOY, identified the Gluten-Free and coconut water food trends, and introduced 500+ products, supervise six direct reports, evaluated vendors & product mix with SAP Atico International-USA, Product Development-Consumer Electronics, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 2006-2009

● Marketed 350 SKU’s triggering $30 million in sales enhancement using NPD stage-gate

● Designed and awarded three product patents, drove blue sky development in digital television and laptops, created product briefs, sourced products, and created the Digital Prism marketing platform

● Crafted private-label branding, packaging, artwork, copywriting, and advertising strategies Ultimate Electronics, Visual Merchandise Coordinator, Denver, CO 2004-2005

● Reduced POP expenditures by 54% through material consolidation and redundancy depletion Univance Marketing Group, Retail Marketing Manager, Englewood, CO 2002-2003

● Implemented, presented, and rolled out three MVON handset product lines and accessories in over 800 Sears stores nationwide and 147 store-within-a-store locations

● Augmented gross margins by 15% for mobile accessories through financial and market analysis Allegro Manufacturing, Marketing Coordinator-Cosmetic Bags, Commerce, CA. 2001-2002

● Enlarged seasonal merchandise revenue by 5x fold, and added $1M in new revenues

● Initiated and developed an industry leading product database to streamline and optimize product development and sales operations.

Degree Controls, Inc., Sales & Marketing Assistant-Web Master, Milford, NH 2000-2001

● Manufacturer ERP, BOM, promote and market new telecommunications thermal cooling solutions

● Administer and manage direct marketing, article contributions and website design and layout for Teltherm.org, a trade journal focused on branding and lead generation, increased journal sales 100% Education

● MIB, International Business & Marketing Southern New Hampshire University

● BSBA, International Business University of Denver Athletic Scholarship Recipient - Swimming

● Cherry Creek High School - 3 x State Champions in Swimming Interests

● International travel, foodie, Sci-Fi, gadgets, anime, comics, SUP, hiking/camping, and snowboarding https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennethlucas2/

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