Christopher Garrow Email & Phone Number

Chicago, IL, US

Des Plaines, Illinois, US

Responsible for the overall direction of the Transportation Finance function, including day-to-day oversight of the team responsible for the review and processing of all third-party carrier freight bills and related customer invoices.*Support all start-up and transitional transportation services operations;*Ensure that carrier payments and customer.

Chicago, IL, US

• Managed the Zero Based Budget (ZBB) for the $400MM warehousing budget, weekly forecast, month end close, SOX internal controls, and capital expense projects (productivity tracking). Staff of four.
• Consolidated, standardized, and implemented the entire planning process for warehousing due to the Kraft acquisition by Heinz, including harmonizing three unique planning processes (legacy Heinz, legacy Kraft mixing.
• Assisted in driving ongoing cost reductions by rebidding and renegotiating vendor contracts saving $20 million annually.
• Improved monthly forecasting from 75% accuracy to 100% by instituting weekly reviews of pallet shipment volumes as well as 3PL expense data.
• Expanded Champaign (IL) warehousing space, eliminating outside storage saving $2 million annually.
• Applying economies of scale, partnered with procurement on material handling equipment leases, saving $1.5 million annually.

Chicago, IL, US

• Managed the plan and reforecasting for variable and fixed distribution (mixing centers/buffers and cost per pound rates), as well as ad hoc support for Logistics Operations and business unit partners.
• Successfully separated SAP systems and networks for Kraft and Mondelez operations including identifying and testing of all system functionality (SAP and non-SAP).
• Provided subject matter expertise for the design of the new distribution and transportation networks including closure of sites, sharing of sites, and new site investments, and training Mondelez counter-parts in SAP.
• Converted multiple manufacturing and logistics applications to a single multi-million dollar SAP platform.
• Partnered with Wal*Mart with logistical load sharing and backhauling, saving more than $600,000 annually.
• Built annual operating plans, monthly forecasts, and performance reports for 80+ warehouse branches assisting operations management and delivering $9 million in annual productivity cost reductions.

Chicago, IL, US

• Managed the plan and reforecasting of the $1.1B selling expense budget and 600 vehicles. Staff of one.
• Implemented two restructuring initiatives saving $55 million (5%) in labor and selling expense.
• Led project generating annual savings of $10 million by transitioning sales team from leased company vehicles to personal vehicle allowance.
• Eliminated fuel volatility by applying quarterly commodity fuel pricing to sales fleet expense, saving $400,000 in first 12 months.
• Developed customer profitability tracker utilizing cost-to-serve analysis impacting bracket pricing.
• Spearheaded the initiative of adding the sales fleet fuel usage to our existing commodity fuel hedge to drive out the impact of gas price volatility in our selling expense results.

Chicago, IL, US

• Managed the plan and reforecasting for $600M revenue Salad Dressings category including $150M in trade spending and $15M in advertising spending.
• Led SKU-pruning initiative reducing low-revenue items by 10% and generating $1 million in cost savings.
• Supported category marketing/sales team through multiple business initiatives and ad hoc financial profitability analysis on new and legacy products, delivering $2.5 million annually in productivity savings.

Chicago, IL, US

Three unique roles that supported R&D/Quality plan and reforecasting, Meals Division Categories, and centralized Field Accounting Center performing accounting/finance activities remotely for the Battle Creek and Champaign plant facilities.

Chicago, IL, US

Supported Oscar Mayer plant facility operations reporting weekly results, month end close, inventory audits, and ad hoc analysis.

Supported CPA partners specializing in valuation and property tax consulting.

Mba, Finance, Economics, Marketing

Bachelor Of Science (Bs), Accounting And Finance