Nicole Rewerts Email & Phone Number

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I was the Category Director that led 2 core business categories of the privately held company operating across the Twin Cities. I reported to the ownership of the highly regulated regional business, and I was accountable for the performance of the categories that drove the success of the business. My team did the planning, buying, and inventory management for 14 locations. We worked directly with the distributors to create and execute strategies for mutual growth using the data that enabled us to maximize profitability and customer satisfaction.I was promoted to this leadership role based on my success in leading the planning for a category and supporting the business through a rapid growth period. I applied those same data analysis and strategic thinking skills as the leader of multiple categories. I also aligned the resources in collaboration with our supplier partners to ensure that we remained on track with a shared vision of success.My team of replenishment managers performed the planning and buying for our categories. I set the strategy and they executed the steps needed to realize the goals of the business that were essential to serving our customers.A few of my achievements included:• Led 3 direct reports that managed the inventory generating millions of dollars in revenues across 14 locations.• Achieved 5% over annual margin target in 2023 for primary category with private label product launch and assortment planning to maximize revenues.• Transformed planning & inventory management by implementing automation capabilities and real time inventory data by configuring and implementing the ERP in partnership with the Finance VP.• Fixed the POS and ERP integration to improve inventory accuracy by leading the technical consultant that identified root cause and managing the migration of transaction data to create reliable insights.• Partnered with vendor to evaluate Nielsen data and plan layouts of new locations to maximize revenues.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I joined the regional business as a Senior Planning Manager. In this capacity, I did the planning and purchasing for the regulated goods that were sold to consumers through the retail locations. I applied my passion for data and process to standardize the purchasing process that was key to scaling the best practices across all locations during this period of rapid growth.My strong work ethic and attention to detail enabled me to play a key role in the launch of new locations. I supported the opening of these locations as the planning subject matter expert. I partnered directly with the vendors to utilize Nielsen data and broader market insights to set our vision for the locations. I also used my strong data analysis skills to prepare the forecasts and execute the plan to realize the sales goals.I learned the industry quickly so that I could add value to the customers, my colleagues, and our supplier partners. I dug in to the data to find the best sourcing practices and to replicate the wins across all of our locations. I also incorporate the key localizations to each location so that we could optimize the assortments for the unique customers at each of the locations. My success in this capacity led to my promotion to lead the team that executes the 2 business critical categories.Results in this role were:• Led 2 direct reports in the sourcing and management of the $7M inventory across 11 locations.• Opened 5 new locations including designing the layouts, planning the inventory, and purchasing.• Developed the forecasts and pricing strategies for the own brand products based on market opportunities.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I was the Senior Manager of Planning & Allocation for this privately held men’s clothing brand. I joined this luxury brand as the first supply chain professional and was given the opportunity to build out the buying and planning process. I reported to the ownership of the business and worked to standardize the processes while also recommending improvements to facilitate the growth of the business.My role was to enable growth through the alignment of the inventory with the financial goals of the leadership. I did this by diving right into the data and inventory to understand the landscape. I identified the risks and opportunities and rolled out a number of policies and programs in this capacity. I alsosecured buy-in from the leadership to launch the first-ever promotions and discounts program for the company to maximize its cashflow.As a result of these successes, I was able to cut the inventory overages and standardize the purchasing across the business. These systematic changes took place across all categories of the business and were focused on optimizing our assortment for customers. Despite these successes, the pandemic and its ever-changing restrictions on retail resulted in the elimination of my position and others.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I took this lateral move to join a multi-brand direct to consumer company to build upon the planning experiences that I had. I was the Merchandise Planner for multiple categories who planned and managed a range of merchandise across retailers. I used my strong statistical analysis and interpersonal skills to create and execute the strategies for the assortments.My strength in finding trends and uncovering opportunities enabled me to consistently meet or exceed financial targets. I created and adopted promotional and markdown strategies that optimized the revenues from the inventory. I also thought broader to analyze the business processes and leveraged the data to seize the key levers to profitability.Wins during this time were:• Controlled overspending by reconciling receipts and monitoring buy quantities to optimize reserves.• Taught business unit leaders the best practices through regular business reviews of categories.• Built the bottom-up analysis of SKUs and seasonal variances and reconciled against the top-down sales plans to improve the profitability of the categories.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I planned and allocated the men's apparel seasonal assortments and ensured inventory was kept at model stock levels. While in this role, I determined the need for clustering stores into similar sales volume, climate and square footage groups to identify more accurate category buys based on purchasing power. I worked tirelessly with our IT partners to ensure systematic efficiencies that would provide the store clusters the inventory levels needed and minimize over stocking.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I ensured the strategic direction, provided by our leadership team, was executed and would result in meeting plan expectations. I did so by building an excel tool that ultimately helped all buying teams understand their category performance and how they were going to manage their business and meet their goals. This tool enabled for more definitive purchasing direction for the teams while the company was shopping for a software that would provide the same end result. I also made sure to closely monitor our Timing and Action calendar to get ahead of any issues that may arise that could ultimately affect overall sales.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I was the point of contact for our vendor partners throughout the design and execution of the product(s). I worked with our cross functional teams to ensure our standard of quality and aesthetic were maintained. I had a high level of attention to detail and communication in this role to make sure all parties were made aware of any changes or issues in a timely manner.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I made recommendations to the Buyer for monthly assortments of scarves, hosiery and eyewear based on analysis of category performance and trend insight.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I assisted the Buyer in purchasing eCommerce exclusive product while also partnering with the planner on maintaining receipt goals.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I was responsible for style, color and size analysis while also maintaining the merchandise on the site.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I executed the promotions and markdowns that rang in the registers for all Christopher & Banks and CJ Banks stores.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I worked closely with merchants and vendor partners on order confirmations and deliveries.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I was responsible for purchase orders, sample management and vendor relations.

Bachelor Of Arts - Ba, Marketing

Fashion Merchandising

Semester Study Abroad