Heather Hughes Email & Phone Number

Deerfield, Il, Us

Direct companywide merchandising visionary roadmap and execution strategies for Health, Wellness, Beauty and Personal Care generating $15B in revenue. Work with 500+ domestic and international suppliers and partner across the enterprise to define and implement merchandising strategies to achieve aggressive bottom-line growth targets and establish the company as the convenient destination for Health and Beauty needs. Manage a team of over 100 direct/indirect reports.Accelerated and expanded growth within the Photo category, solidifying the position as the #1 U.S. retail market share leader through CapEx investments in equipment, digital capability enhancements, new product development, and enhanced user experience. ★ Highlights ★➡ Achieved ROI in 18 months, well ahead of five-year projections while delivering nearly 20% of the front end EBIT. ➡ Brought 300+ bps of margin improvement in 24 months by emphasizing discipline in supplier profit contribution and best-in-class supplier renegotiations.➡ Spearheaded organization-wide tariff mitigation efforts, minimizing impacts to less than 10% of identified risks impacting the P&L.➡ Delivered a Seasonal sell-thru improvement of 500+ bps and an EBIT growth of 10%+ through organizational restructuring driving team empowerment and optimized inventory plans for customer-facing seasons.➡ Secured Walgreens as the only authorized retailer in the Drugstore channel to sell Apple accessories. Launched an exclusive 3% Apple daily cash offer to Walgreens customers using Apple credit card with Apple Pay.

Deerfield, Il, Us

Innovation, strategy, project management, and P&L leader for the $3.5B OTC division of the Retail Products Merchandising organization. Defined, prioritized, and executed aggressive, enduring, and novel strategic initiatives for driving traffic, conversion, and revenue growth and strong profit for the OTC division.★ Highlights ★➡ Leveraged best-in-class insights to redesign the Health and Wellness space, enhancing the overall customer shopping experience and delivering a 2%+ sales growth for the company’s most profitable business segment.➡ Developed, landed, and managed the company’s Vitamin Angels platform, creating a profitable market share growth for the vitamin category and saving 100 million children’s lives directly through the program.➡ Conceptualized, created, tested, and marketed the Wellness Guide initiative; leveraged results to create a customer care initiative that bridged the gap between the pharmacy, retail, and non-retail offerings and delivered 50 bps of growth through internal/cross-functional training companywide.➡ Collaborated with vendor and marketing leadership on the design and implementation of a Smoking Cessation program with a healthy-choices platform and pharmacist training program that increased sales of smoking cessation products and helped 300,000 individuals across the U.S. to quit smoking.➡ Created and implemented an industry leading dedicated in-store space with wellness-inspired products and dietician services.➡ Motivated and drove engagement with a team of three Category Managers, three Associate Category Managers, and a team of Merchandising Assistants, leveraging learning-style and personality management techniques to create individualized development opportunities aligned with personal goals and enterprise objectives.

Deerfield, Il, Us

Oversaw the development and implementation of Baby, Sanitary, Feminine Hygiene, and Condom product category merchandising plans and marketing, advertising, and promotion programs for categories generating $1B in annual sales. Engaged and managed vendors and supply chain leaders in managing inventory, funding negotiations, and product sourcing, evaluation, and procurement.★ Highlights ★➡ Created mentoring initiatives and training programs for facilitating the knowledge, performance, and advancement of Merchandising Assistants and Associate Category Managers.➡ Influential in two Rewire streamlining initiatives, End-to-End Advertising and Product Flow, that analyzed processes, developed and implemented areas for improvement, and increased efficiency and efficacy for generating savings across the company.

Deerfield, Il, Us

Designed and developed diabetes education programs deployed to pharmacists and pharmacy technicians across a network of 180+ district diabetes representatives countrywide. Evaluated diabetes/diagnostic products and made recommendations for placement within stores.★ Highlights ★➡ Created blended training and internal education programs for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.➡ Editor-in-Chief of the nationally-available Diabetes & You quarterly magazine (English and Spanish versions). ➡ Served as Preceptor for University of Illinois COP PharmD candidates.

Deerfield, Il, Us

Recruited pharmacists and graduating pharmacy students and coordinated acquisition events for pharmacy schools and the Southern Division of Walgreens.★ Highlights ★➡ Presented Mission, Vision, Pharmacy initiatives and benefits to prospective talent, developed recruitment training for newly promoted Pharmacy Supervisors and educate Pharmacy Supervisors on new recruitment strategies.➡ Partnered with Southern Division Vice Presidents to assess current hiring needs and build strategies to align new talent processing to appropriately staff pharmacies.➡ Co-editor and writer for Walgreens Recruitment Reporter, a newsletter distributed monthly to Pharmacy Supervisors and District Managers.

Deerfield, Il, Us

Promoted to management after six months of leading pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in a high-volume store.

Woonsocket, Ri, Us