Category Advisor

DEBRA M. HIRSCH

**** **** ****** ~ Pea Ridge, AR 72751

Home: 479-***-**** ~ Mobile: 479-***-****

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CATEGORY MANAGEMENT, REPLENISHMENT AND FORECASTING

Retail / Warehouse/ Warehouse Clubs

A qualified professional with extensive experience in Category Management, Replenishment, and Forecasting, with a solid record of advancement based on contributions to company sales and profit, cost savings and innovative merchandising strategies. Key strengths in:

 Category Management

 Space Allocation

 Forecasting/CPFR

 Visual Merchandising/JDA Pro Space

 PO/Invoicing thru Orbits

 Financial Analysis/Retail Link

 Data Trend Analysis

 Inventory Management

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Winston Company-Dept. 10 & 13

June 2009-Present

Replenishment Manager/Sr. Category Analyst-Wal-Mart Team

 Managed daily replenishment to the Walmart warehouses

 Managed five sku’s that averaged twenty dollars per week per store

 Responsible for store level inventory and order fill rate

 Managed accounting issues, shipping reports, and issues with purchase orders

valued member of a sales team that increased sales by 50% this year

 Responsible for analyzing daily reports and making recommendations to the team leader that resulted in increased customer sales

 Identified inventory and “Store of the Community” opportunities which generated additional sales

 Responsible for coordinating purchase orders with internal departments, including production planning and shipping departments to ensure that all Walmart Must Arrive by Dates were met

Attending merchandise planning sessions with team leader, presenting sales data and trends

Cherrydale Manufacturing LLC-Everyday Candy and Seasonal Candy

May 2007-August 2008

Sr. Category Analyst-Wal-Mart Team

 Worked as part of a sales team that built a $4 Million business at Walmart in it’s first year as a supplier

 Managed twenty-two sku’s that had a volume of forty dollars per week per store

 Responsible for analyzing daily reports and making recommendations to the team leader that resulted in increased customer sales

 Identified inventory and “Store of the Community” opportunities which generated additional sales

 Responsible for coordinating purchase orders with internal departments, including production planning and shipping departments to ensure that all Walmart Must Arrive by Dates were met

 Attending merchandise planning sessions with team leader, presenting sales data and trends

Houston Harvest Gift Products LLC- Food Gifts, Popcorn, and Seasonal Candy

March 2004-May 2007

Category Advisor-Wal-Mart Team

 Category Advisor to Walmart buyer

 Analyzed category sales and assisted the buyer by providing fact based recommendations that contributed to a growth in the category sales from $90MM to $100MM

 I managed three hundred and fifty sku’s

 Assisted the Walmart buyer in distribution, modular, price and promotional decisions for the category

 Developed value comparison models that allowed the Walmart buying staff to better analyze product value from suppliers and competitive retailers

 Utilized Walmart’s Retail Link store level data to analyze sales and create actionable plans that had an immediate impact on the category by increasing seasonal sales

Smithfield Packing/John Morrell-Meat Department

March 2003-February 2004

Replenishment Manager

 Managed daily replenishment to the Walmart warehouses by placing orders in Walmart’s supplier managed inventory systems

 Managed thirty five sku’s that averaged twenty-five dollars per week per store

 Responsible for store level inventory and order fill rate

 Managed accounting issues, shipping reports, and issues with purchase orders

 Valued member of a sales team that increased sales by 100% in one year

SAM’S CLUB

December 1985 to June 2002

Merchandise Assistant, Candy Category

 Assistant to Buyer of a 2 billion dollar category

 Utilized Walmart’s Retail Link system analyzing POS sales data to maximize item performance

 Provided administrative support to the buying staff

 Responsible for customer service to the 400 Sam’s Clubs and customers

 Responsible for item creation and inventory analysis of all items in the category

 Tracked supplier marketing funds and events

 Trained all new associates and managed the workload for all associates under my supervision

 Scheduled the buyer’s appointments with all suppliers

 Responsible for category replenishment and inventory management, maintaining a 99.5% club instock level

 Entered tax flags and tax codes into internal systems

 Entered new item information into merchandising systems

 Assisted suppliers with UPC code issues

Professional Development

 Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Word, Microsoft Outlook

 Retail Leadership Society Treasure

Higher Education

 Taking a Retail Management Course with NWACC

 Currently enrolled at NWACC to complete my Bachelors Degree attentive for

December 2010

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