Sandy Thornton Email & Phone Number

Illinois

Bloomingdale, IL

Greater Chicago Area

• Began as IL, MN, and WI sales manager for Sam Jasper Wines, with brands including La Merika, First Press, Frusion, Sonoma Hills, and Fog Head.
• After a company reorganization dissolved Sam Jasper Wines, moved to IL sales manager for the National Portfolio, with brands including Black Stallion, HandCraft, Gnarly Head, Noble Vines, Bota Box, Juxtapoz, Brazin.
• Gained several placements in key accounts by utilizing past relationships and developing new ones. Examples include tripling sales to Heinen’s, increasing Hy-Vee outstate distributions, adding new promotions with Hard.
• Managed budgets, pricing, and depletions, performed profit analysis, and developed market plans and programs to identify unique opportunities or underserved areas.
• Increased brand awareness through market-facing presentations including wait staff trainings, seminars, distributor meetings, consumer tastings, wine dinners, and new brand rollouts.

Greater Chicago Area

• Oversaw nine different Midwest states throughout almost 10 years including IL, OH, MI, IN, MN, WI, IA, ND, and SD. Average wine sales volume was 50,000cs per year. Brands included Kenwood, Valley of the Moon, Lake.
• Managed sales, promotions, and relationships for both on and off premise accounts.
• Trained and managed a direct report in IL, MN, and a broker in OH.
• Formed and maintained strong relationships with key buyers at large accounts including Giant Eagle, Heinen’s, Big Red, Marsh, Binny’s, Hillers, Mariano’s, Hy-Vee, Fresh Market, Whole Foods, and Meijer.
• Communicated and negotiated with all levels of management in each state through executing distributor/broker sales goals, corporate billing objectives, budget management, local marketing, and distributer programming.
• Conducted structured sales meetings, new product introductions, and business reviews with management and sales teams in each state.

Greater Chicago Area

• Developed and implemented distribution goals, sales volume goals, and marketing programs.
• Managed territory, sales, distribution, merchandising, and servicing for both on and off premise.
• Developed merchandising plans based on customer priorities and business processes, and executed unique promotional tie-ins to increase brand consumption.
• Focused heavily on outstate Illinois and grew business significantly.

Greater Chicago Area

• Set up promotions, implemented customer programming, and worked closely with supplier reps to service accounts in the Chicagoland area.
• Worked with the full SWS portfolio with multiple suppliers including Beringer, Brown Forman, and Bacardi.
• Began career by calling on a territory of 80 independent off-premise accounts, and was recognized as the top Chicago off-premise sales rep by Beringer in 2003.
• Promoted to on-premise sales rep to call on 75 of the Select Division top 1,400 accounts, and won numerous supplier incentives and union pools.