 Oversee contract negotiations, pricing and raw material purchase positions for products to support both the Honey Baked manufacturing and retail lines of business. Categories of responsibility include proteins, dairy, beverage, grocery and packaging items. Retail division includes the support of 400 plus retail locations, divided between both company and franchise owned stores. Sourcing efforts also include supply for Honey Baked’s Direct-To-Consumer production facility located in Holland, Ohio that supports all Ecommerce sales. Provide constant direction to and collaboration with the Honey Baked Finance Team to assure accurate and timely reporting of cost of goods, risk and market expectations.  Responsible for maintaining vendor relationships to assure continued supply, optimal pricing, quality adherence, and a pipeline of innovation to best support the brand, its business priorities and long-term planning.  Creatively and successfully exceeded annual cost savings goals in each year of ownership.

Manage coordination between the Carvel Brand Team, third party procurement provider, suppliers and distribution partners to drive improved food costs, execute marketing programs and to initiate sourcing projects to improve unit level economics for Carvel franchisees. Ensure steady foods costs for franchisees with market reporting and purchasing recommendations to brand team and franchisee advisory committee. Manage reserve account that buffers franchisees from fluctuating butter market and allows for continuity in costs of ice cream mix that accounts for major share of franchisee food costs.

 Supply responsibility for over 1,100 International locations between 6 brands across 60 different countries. Oversee all aspects of supply; monitoring export activity from the U.S., vendor and product selection in local markets, and support of all global Marketing initiatives.  With a shift in the FOCUS Brands International Supply Chain model to more local supply availability, initiated in-country sourcing of gold standard products in ten key regional markets. Purpose being to provide improved cost of goods and competitive advantage to our franchisees. With start of the initiative in early 2015, have secured regional ingredient suppliers for 100% of global markets for products accounting for 80% of the cost of goods.  As part of the global sourcing initiative partnered with Legal, Quality and Culinary teams to set new, more stringent guidelines for legal, food safety, ingredient quality and performance standards for International vendors. Acted as key point of contact and controller of all activities supporting the new requirements for our International suppliers. Enhanced requirements were applied to all new and existing vendors. This initiative has transformed the landscape of the FOCUS Brands International vendor pool, decreasing its size, improving its sophistication, level of partnership and security.

Category manager for the healthcare textiles product lines supporting the extended care, acute care and government sales channels. Product lines include patient apparel, staff apparel, flat goods and clinically focused items.  Direct all new products from ideation through execution. Provide sales support through new product training, development of Marketing tools and category reporting. Focus on category consolidation to improve volume and pricing on key products. Create a catalog of focus items with improved margins for better sales strategy.

 Responsible for the execution and tracking of new market launches for all five concepts across global markets. Worked with new franchise partners, import agents and distributors to understand market specific import requirements, identified local sourcing needs and determined the best sourcing strategy. Carried out in-market sourcing to identify local vendors for previously imported key products and ingredients.

 Managed catalog of reusable flat goods items across multiple sales channels. Responsible for the development of Marketing materials and sales tools for category of products. Developed product specifications, provided guidance in regard to product evaluation and compliance.

 Supply team lead for all promotions, limited time offers, and Marketing tests at the national and individual market levels.  Worked directly with Marketing and Operations leadership to understand promotion expectations and requirements, then relayed that information back to the ARCOP team.  Guide Promotion Management team in successful execution of all programs in coordination with seven Distribution Partners across seventeen Distribution Centers. Analyzing inventory movement and restaurant sales to guide ingredient production and inventory decisions. Primary focus was maintaining supply while minimizing obsolescence.

 Primary role for SED was to support its multiple information and hardware systems while initiating, managing, and executing projects to enhance the usability, efficiency, and flexibility of these systems and their supporting processes.  Managed project to develop a national kitting metrics scorecard to be shared daily with Sony high level management. Consolidated existing reporting processes to single reporting tool that automated data capture and extraction. Successful installation of this tool provided real time metrics for Kitting management allowing for increased reaction time to deviations from production standards, better labor planning, and a more accurate cost structure.  As part of a national Loose Picking Operational Excellence initiative, reengineered the allocation process across all SED sites by identifying best practices and streamlining exception identification and resolution through improved reporting and automation. The resulting time savings from the new work flow allowed for remote allocation for the smaller SED sites and a reduction in head count.

Systems and Continuous Improvement Manager Account team leader for systems and continuous improvement initiatives for the entire Clorox regional distribution center network. Champion for Exel and customer IT issue identification and resolution, while managing the implementation of Red Prairie DLx warehouse management software for three regional distribution centers. Continuous improvement role focused around Clorox’s World Class Distribution initiative to generate fifteen million dollars in supply chain costs savings through 2009. Partnered with the Clorox management team to manage all aspects of this high priority initiative at the site level.  Developed reporting tool and quarterly presentations to successfully track financial results and operational involvement back to the customer’s executive management to substantiate the results of the Clorox World Class Distribution Initiative. Managed the budgeting, execution, and installation of all Red Prairie DLx warehouse management system enhancements. Managed customer allotted budget while simultaneously determining best value of IT spend on high priority focuses of improved productivity, inventory accuracy, and data sharing. Operations Support Manager  Originally hired onto the customer management team to develop a Quality system for the Clorox network. Quality system implementation was first step in the introduction of the Red Prairie IT solution and provided operational continuity between a recently expanded network of two to five sites. Overwhelmingly successful results for the Clorox account resulted in expanded responsibility to manage the content and completion of Quality Systems for multiple consumer goods accounts within Exel’s Southeast region.

 Efficiently and effectively coached Operations team in the development and implementation of a quality program to translate across multiple production facilities resulting in seamless product quality and appearance from all sites.  Developed workflow processes to include data collection allowing for the use of this data to measure adherence to quality, operational, and financial standards.  Worked in tandem with the sales team to develop customer specific solutions for new and existing accounts. Presented operational programs and initiatives during new business pursuits with the sales team to leverage development opportunities.  Team leader for product rationalization project to determine item by item profitability.

 Led initiative to move quality processes from next day to in-line testing. New ownership of quality standards was given to those directly affecting the end product, improving response times and decreasing yield loss. Demonstrated improved manufacturing and food safety practices through successful American Institute of Baking ratings at the highest category each of the five years of my leadership.

 Regional lead for the Atlanta Operations software implementation of JDEdwards ERP supporting the financial, procurement, operations, and engineered standards applications of the IT solution. Financial planning, forecasting and reporting for two manufacturing facilities with accountability to the Corporate Controller. Leveraged the new ERP system to assist, challenge, and audit production activities. Generated effective presentations to convey plant performance from period end financial results.  Directed cost savings initiative for 2002 generating an $800,000 savings in overhead costs.