I am a student of my industry and love every day of work. The industry is constantly evolving and I love identifying the next trends and develop a strategy to thrive in whatever new challenges lie ahead.

 Signature Specialty Sales & Marketing is a large specialty and natural foods broker based in Illinois. We currently represent approximately @130 vendors through various distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. I am currently responsible for all typical broker functions in Wisconsin and the management of two Territory Sales Managers. I also serve as our Key account Manager to Roundy’s, Piggly Wiggly Mid-West, and I am the Brand Manager for Certco Inc.  I am responsible for $13.2 mm in sales.

 This was an incredible experience. As the only employee to stay with Sportsman’s Recipes, Inc., through the acquisition, my primary and initial responsibility was to ensure a seamless transition for our customers and products. Throughout the buy-out in May 2006, we did not lose a single customer and continued on a double-digit sales growth pattern.  As Director of Sales my responsibilities included all aspect of the sales cycle to grocery, sporting goods, and mass merchandisers. This includes pricing strategies, promotional strategies, new product development, presentation development, customer presentations, trade shows, vendor/customer set-up, order fulfillment issues, collections/deduction issues, etc.  In 2008 we launched a new line of soups. During the launch, I personally sold the product to over 2,000 stores or, 5,500 individual placements!  During this role, I was responsible for $7.3 MM worth of profitable business.

 For 4-1/2 years I had the pleasure of building the Shore Lunch brand. Prior to our acquisition in May 2006, we nearly doubled the size of Sportsman’s Recipes utilizing my core business beliefs: strategic planning, innovative product launches, prospecting work, data & passion driven sales presentations, strategic broker alliances and ethical behavior.  During my time at Sportsman’s Recipes I also researched and purchased a new business software system, created a forecasting routine, sourced new warehousing services, sourced offsite production, assisted in the development of several new lines, created a budgeting procedure, and worked on several other operational aspects of our business.  In my last year, I was responsible for $9.5mm in sales. When I started, our sales were just over $5mm annually.

 I was responsible for the management of our Koops’ brand mustard, and the management of approximately 35 different retail customers’ private label mustard and vinegar programs. Olds Products is the premier private label mustard company in the USA. My role was to build on what we had and seek out any available new business. Accomplishments included: increased sales for 12 oz Koops’ label by $359,301 (over 35%) in three seasons, increased sales per case by 3% without taking a price increase, cultivated and earned new business at several major customers; including: Ahold, Spartan, Schultz Sav-o, Rich Foods, and several other customers, developed a new TL pricing and sales strategy that was responsible for an additional 36,000 cases of 20 oz mustard this year alone, created 40+ new, successful items in a “flat “ category

 Director of Marketing, I served as the liaison between the sales department, purchasing, and the vendor community. My main goal was the development and implementation of special event planning. Developed incentive plans with vendors to create extra sales. Managed company sales initiative to drive new placements at retail level. Managed event marketing opportunities i.e. Brewers baseball, Milwaukee Bucks, Green Bay Packers, Marquette basketball. Created a communication loop between our vendors, buyers, sales people, and accounting to have a pre-approval for marketing requests. This significantly reduced unauthorized deductions for our vendors.  Account Manager-MBC Foods· Account Manager for Schultz Sav-o, Cub Foods IL, Dominick’s, and Jewel. Our primary focus was Schultz Sav-o. During my time with Schultz Sav-o, I accomplished 3 straight years of double-digit growth for MBC Foods. I also developed a complex back door receiving program that reduced sales labor. We simply revamped a check-in process that was taking up to 4 hours per week, per store and revised it into an electronic check-in procedure that lowered check-in time to minutes. Spread out over 70+ stores and 52 weeks this saved @11,000 hours of sales person labor per year.

 In this role I worked specifically with the corporate owned store groups for Fleming Companies, Inc. I called on divisions in Miami FL, Waukesha WI, Minneapolis MN, Superior WI, Lacrosse WI, Peoria IL, Springfield MO, and Buffalo NY. This was a new customer group for us. Therefore I was responsible for staffing, team development, and creating a business plan for each division. Once established I was responsible for the management of the personnel, communication of corporate sales initiative, and the development of regional marketing plans. Responsible for 18 employees including 8 Account Managers. Recruiting responsibilities included campus interviews at Harvard Business School, Yale Business School, Cornell University, and Northwestern University. Responsible for the management and growth of over 10,000 items. Responsible for communication between the divisions and Fleming Corporate private label buyers.

 During my six years at the Hy-Vee account, I worked on all store brand categories. Account Manager for Dry Grocery, H.B.C., food service, and perishables. Account Representative for grocery. I was responsible for almost all dry grocery items that were sold through two divisions at Hy-Vee. Retail Representative for the Cherokee division

 Fleming was a completely new account for Daymon Associates, Inc. Thus, I was responsible for setting up an office, hiring retail sales people, and creating our business plan for the division. Selling, Developing and implementing new items based on IRI data, and any other tool available to me. Development of an annual promotional grid. Managing personnel. This included all aspects of grooming and developing individuals into happy, strong, productive members of a team. Developed a line of communication between Daymon, the buying staff, advertising, and the vendor community