RICHARD MERCURIO

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

Marietta, GA 30066

678-***-****

adbajb@r.postjobfree.com

Purchasing Specialist

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS

Offering 35+ years of experience in leading, developing, and implementing a processes and approach in building relationships with internal and external customers. Monitored and assisted in all purchasing and sourcing activities to ensure maximum profitability and competitive advantage. Assisted in negotiating long-term and short-term transactions with vendors. Strong emphasis on leadership and customer service by ensuring an excellent standard of service is provided by leading and directing day - to - day operations of departments by creating product training seminars. Possess a comprehensive background in vendor contract negotiations and strategic planning through implementing solutions based strategies in purchasing plans for long-term and short-term contracts. WORK EXPERIENCE

Office Depot, Norcross, Ga April 2017 to May 2019

Proprietary Purchasing Specialist

● Drove efficiency of ordering and inventory management through the creation of customer proprietary sku’s for specific customers and maintaining sufficient inventory levels at all DC’s

● Managed operations to include material purchasing and planning, inventory management, vendor selection and vendor relations; resulting in being able to provide the ability to supply over 80,000 different items to include office supplies, janitorial, technology products, food service / break room supplies and office furniture for over 20 locations across the United States, including Hawaii and Puerto Rico

Office Depot, Norcross, Ga January 2004 to April 2017 Purchasing Support Manager

● Supported strategic and national account sales force nationwide by providing product research and information, system processes to collect and gather data on new potential suppliers to accurately categorize products and capabilities

● Led the development, implementation & execution of new business processes, planning tools and merchandise systems technology by creating a proprietary sku process and maintaining inventory levels based upon customer’s annual sales

● Worked with bid teams regarding alternative products for customer / bid requested products that were not stock

Merchandising Liaison

● Worked with corporate merchants on catalog reviews, product concerns, such as incorrect copy on the web site, unit of measure issues, wrong images and pricing issues; resulting in 100% accuracy of annual catalog assortment

● Conducted post-acquisition integration by performing due diligence activities from acquired companies through cross referencing stocked items

RICHARD MERCURIO Page 2

● Oversaw the purchasing of all stocked items and working with sales to get purchase orders and stocking agreements in place to ensure we are buying at the best price while also optimizing carrying costs

Office Depot, Orlando, Fl July 1994 to January 2004 Purchasing/Customer Service Manager

● Led a team of 13 in the development and tactical implementation of purchasing strategy with responsibilities for creating custom contracts for customers

● Maintained development of team through leadership and training by way of creating product training seminars for office associates to help them learn about products and who makes what

● Created the first Special Order team (Non - Codes) consisting of 6 associates; ordered non- stocked office supplies, stamps & signs, furniture and add specialty and promotional products for contract customers to ensure 100 % customer satisfaction Purchasing Manager

● Led staff of purchasing agents responsible for the overall management of inventory, including policy and procedure surrounding procurement, movement accuracy and inventory levels

● Turned the DC product assortment into a contract supplier assortment; created sku’s that were more in line with what a B2B customer would want to purchase for their needs.

● Maintained customer and vender relationships by controlling inventory turns by using materials management best practices to ensure stocking levels and ordered products for B2B customer contracts

● Mitigated inventory risk and maximized profitability by ensuring specific lines of product from manufacturers and wholesalers were maintained to sufficient inventory levels ADDITIONAL WORK EXPERIENCE

L.E. Muran Co.

Billerica, Ma.

Warehouse Associate & Buyer 1981 – 1994

Job functions were warehouse related: Stocking, Picking orders, packing orders and quality control. Moved into the merchandising and buyer roles eventually AWARDS

Impact Player Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Florida Market Leading The Way Award for Outstanding Sales Support for the East Region First Ever Customer Hero Award given by the National Accounts team for outstanding sales support nationwide

EDUCATION

Revere High School