Expert Details
Grocery & Retail: Customer Service, Planograms, Store Management, and Strategic Planning.
ID: 739620
Texas, USA
Expert also spent time in several Business Development Manager roles purchasing and managing the Video departments for H-E-B and then moving on purchasing the Houseware categories which total over $100 million in sales annually. He then moved back into an operations role as Store Manager for a store with over 400 employees and weekly sales of over a $1 million. Having been asked to return to corporate, he took on roles within the ShelfEdge department which enabled him to become a Senior Manager of several different areas, including Merchandising, Pricing, Price Optimization, Project Management and Store Merchandising.
During this time, Expert was responsible for the implementation of the JDA merchandising suite of products that resulted in overall improvement of merchandising and customer instore experience. During his leadership with ShelfEdge, he mentored many partners that have moved on to significant roles at H-E-B, including buying, own brand product design, and store leadership roles.
Retiring from H-E-B in August of 2017, he started his own consultancy in 2018, providing services that connect manufacturers, vendors, and suppliers with retailers. He helps with developing the roadmap for success that enables companies to provide products and services that support the retailers vision for their customers. He also became a Managing Partner/Owner of a Division 1 sport training franchise in 2018, and was retained as an advisor on facility set up and staffing. Expert also had a contract-role assignment as the Senior Sales Manager from Jan 2021-Nov 2021 for Associated Wholesale Grocers. In this role, he onboarded a new member to the AWG program and re-merchandised all new member stores.
Expert is competent with JDA Suites, space planning, and advertising, and he is knowledgeable in DemandTec Price Optimization. He has expertise in store merchandising and store fixtures, including new store and remodel process. He has working knowledge of SRS and inventory management, and extensive knowledge in the grocery and retail business process at both corporate and store levels.
Education
| Year | Degree | Subject | Institution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year: 1990 | Degree: Bachelor of Business Administration | Subject: Accounting | Institution: Texas State University |
Work History
| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
|---|---|---|---|
| Years: 2018 to Present | Employer: Undisclosed | Title: President/Owner | Department: |
Responsibilities:Providing services that connect manufacturers, vendors, and suppliers with retailers. Developing the roadmap for success that enables companies to provide products and services that support the retailers vision for their customers.• Replaced the incumbent water filtration company at HEB with new machines at all 395 locations. Improving the overall service and revenue stream by 45%. • Installed the water system with Circle K corporation with plans to roll out company wide. • Introduction of Crypto Currency machines at HEB, Cal’s Convenience stores, and Murphy’s. • Placement of key duplication kiosk in HEB as a 40-store test, resulting in complete rollout in early 2022. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 2018 to Present | Employer: Undisclosed | Title: Managing Partner/Owner | Department: |
Responsibilities:Purchased the rights to develop 2 large franchise territories covering the north side of San Antonio. Identified 3 possible locations within 2 months, signed on 2 General Manager and 2 Head Trainers/coaches. Approached by investment group to enter in a joint venture and sold majority stake in the company to them. Was retained as an advisor on facility set up and staffing. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 2021 to 2021 | Employer: Associated Wholesale Grocers | Title: Senior Sales Manager II | Department: |
Responsibilities:The scope of role was to on-board a new member to the AWG program and at the same time re-merchandise all the new member stores. This was a 12-to-18-month contract role assignment. Put in place as Director of Center Store Procurement and Merchandising.• Re-merchandised and re-assorted all stores in a 12-week timeframe and proposed new category strategies for top 15 categories that were implemented or in proposed to be implemented by 4th quarter. • Reduced overall inventory by 15% while growing sales and improving turns at a 12% over 2020 pace. • Introduced new advertising standards and strategies to improve customer penetration, while improving sell-through goals. • Hired and on-boarded 2 new procurement team members and 3 new operations team members to support the new programs being put into place. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 2009 to 2017 | Employer: H-E-B Grocery | Title: Senior Manager of Space Planning/Assortment, Floor Planning & Merchandising, and Project Management | Department: |
Responsibilities:Operational scope of responsibility included leadership of merchandising managers and their space planning analyst teams, along with the floor planning organization. Facilitated the departmental process improvement projects.• Delivered category updates resulting in 22,000+ new items brought to shelf annually. • Reinvented the merchandising process for cosmetics resulting in a $5MM improvement in sales annually and 400-point basis reduction in markdown spend. • Led team of floor planning managers to create and maintain floor plans for 385 stores. Resulting in the creation of the foundation for the online store shopping experience support for the newly launched curbside service program. It resulted in a 65% reduction in order errors in the fixture ordering process for construction projects. • Provided leadership for (5) Project managers, CAD manager, (7) project leaders and 210 vendor team members. Delivering on the merchandising plans for 15-20 new stores, 35-40 major remodels and 250 special projects annually. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 2006 to 2009 | Employer: H-E-B Grocery | Title: Senior Manager of Pricing and Price Optimization | Department: |
Responsibilities:• Led (4) different teams: price optimization, competitive data collection, advertising, and coupon teams. Price optimization resulted in overall price image improvement of 300 basis points, while improving profitability. Competitive data collection and processing from 50+ competitive locations across the state weekly.• Led (4) pricing managers and 6 pricing analysts covering all Drugstore, General Merchandise, Cosmetic and Healthy Living categories. Indexes improved from 98 to 101 vs low price formats and from 97 to 108 vs high/low formats while maintaining or improving gross margins. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 1999 to 2006 | Employer: H-E-B Grocery | Title: Merchandising Manager | Department: |
Responsibilities:Operational scope was leading a group of vendor-provided space planning analysts to provide plan-o-grams and space allocation. Accountable for development of all processes and KPI tracking.• Created all company-wide communication to stores, project teams, procurement partners and vendors. • Developed access database for tracking and ordering all fixtures needed for category store merchandising. • Implemented process for introducing 300+ new items into stores on a weekly basis. • Designed and executed the category update schedules which resulted in 500+ categories being remerchandised on an annual basis. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 1997 to 1999 | Employer: H-E-B Grocery | Title: Marketplace Store Director | Department: |
Responsibilities:Scope included oversight of over 450 personnel, merchandising and financial aspects for total store.• Provide recommendations for merchandising and organizational structure changes to convert the store from a Central Market divide division store to a traditional core store format. • Led the team of department managers that resulted in annual sales of $50+MM. • Improved profitability by 500 basis points while ensuring customer service standards were maintained. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 1995 to 1997 | Employer: H-E-B Grocery | Title: Business Development Manager | Department: |
Responsibilities:Management of all Housewares, Continuity, and Promotional categories.• Improved profitably of Appliance category 500 basis points by transitioning from a full-service program to a warehouse program. • Grew total sales from $45MM to $55MM within the first year. • Developed new promotion opportunities by working with vendors both in the office, on site, factory visits, and traveling abroad for import products. Management of all video categories and video rental distribution center. • Procurement and distribution of $3MM of rental videos annually, generating $183MM in rental revenue. • Procurement of video for sale resulting in $15MM sales annually. • Right-size the operation to position company to close the total operation. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 1995 to 1995 | Employer: H-E-B Grocery | Title: Continuous Improvement Manager | Department: |
Responsibilities:Led cross-functional teams to analyze specific areas of the business that were generating retail shrink losses.• Team members included Vice-Presidents, Directors, Business Development Managers and Operations Leaders. • Generated recommendations for process changes to eliminate shrink in the following key areas. o Scan-based trading for magazines resulted in a reduction of losses by 50% and reduction in labor of 72%. o New item introduction process and communication resulted in improved overall sales speed to shelf. o Markdown tracking and approval process resulted markdown dollars reduction of over 45%. o Total store merchandising processes resulted in the creation of a department that centralized on merchandising activities. Streamlined all processes and reduced cost of implementation while generating efficiencies that allowed for more work to be completed. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 1993 to 1995 | Employer: H-E-B Grocery | Title: Drugstore Advertising Manager | Department: |
Responsibilities:Reported to Group Vice-President of Drugstore.• Coordination and proofing of all advertising vehicles and providing the measurement of results. • Responsible for the development and administration of end cap/power panel procurement programs. • Role was contact person for all store questions from operations. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 1980 to 1993 | Employer: H-E-B Grocery | Title: Various Operations Roles | Department: |
Responsibilities:Held operations roles in: Customer Service Representative, Drugstore Lead, Dairy Manager, Warehouse Supervisor and Drugstore Director. |
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