George B. Email & Phone Number

Edmonton, Ab, Ca

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Managed a team of 12 specialists across vast geography and assisted stores in sales growth and profit generation, with strategy in analysis of scanned data for purchasing trends, focus on areas of sales shrink, collaborating with department managers on customer feedback and requests • Was responsible for staffing decisions including, hiring, training, mentoring, team building, discipline, assignments and termination, to foster talent pool, work performance, associated metrics and team cohesion• Oversaw assortment in 34 retail stores, ensuring implementation of programs as well as meeting financial and operational objectives; created fun and effective contests for store level to execute and drive sales and draw customer foot traffic into physical locations• Spearheaded and developed new programs to capture customer purchasing trends, including testing the program at retail and overseeing the creations of SOPs, execution and training at store level• Set-up new stores and support new store owners, pre and post-store opening, as well as trained new store employees to execute the programs• Managed effective construction of new and existing stores to achieve opening date deadlines and ensure all equipment and products were displayed and featured on-time, with weekly progress reports generated and presented to the VP of Operations• Generated and executed weekly display building plans, working with franchise stores for feedback and assistance to adjust for the various size store• Visited franchise stores weekly to ensure displays and Plan-O-Grams were executed to attract the attention of the consumer and accentuate products

Western Canada

Adopted dual roles as Merchandising Manager for Sobeys and IGA, and as Category Manager of breakfast foods, in the interim until a replacement could be found; served as first-rate merchandising manager responsible for creating display plans, attending trade shows to meet with suppliers, and setting up grocery flows for new and existing stores, with responsibility for set-up and opening of new stores• Reported actual weekly sales and profits compared to projections and how details affected financialsto company executives, to foster communication and comprehension of key missives and updates across organizational lines, and specifically for senior leadership• Created marketing programs to support weekly ads., complete with ad. graphics, SOPs for program execution and regular visits to retail stores to ensure programs execution and gain valuable feedback• Reviewed new store builds, and product flows, and oversaw construction and set-up of new stores to opening, and support post-opening

Western Canada

• Drove 3rd-largest category in Sobeys West, worth $200+M a year in sales, to achieve 3% - 7% growth year-after-year in overall category• Increased coffee category from 3.5% gross profit to 17.2% in just 1 year and continued to grow it by capitalizing on trending pods vs ground coffee• Built vendor relations, negotiated deal costing and cost decreases, managed increases, and set retail store formats, creating store-specific shelf plans in Spaceman, and assisting vendors in the effective launch of new and lucrative products• Attended trade shows to meet with future vendors and bring in new and trending products, such as the creation of Organic and Good for You Foods, which was the company mission at the time• Viewed and analyzed reports through Amia on SAP and scanned sales and compare to AC Nielson data to drive category growth; utilized pivot tables, v-lookups, and graphs in Excel to track sales, volume and ad history to accurately predict future sales• Led and participated in weekly meeting to discuss ad selections, sales and profit expectations for those items, as well as review past ad sales, and compare those to budgeted expectation for all departments• Collaborated with buyers to ensure adequate inventory was accessible and on-hand in the warehouse to satisfy store demand but not overstock, and subsequently assisted in the reduction of discontinued items, and listing of new items into complex digitized information system

Basic Operations

Education record

Technical Degree

Education record