PAULA DEZAN
Stellarton,NS
Summary
Enterprise Project Category Manager with more than 25 years of merchandising, category strategy and tactical planning experience. Demonstrated leadership capabilities with direct and indirect employee groups. Employs tact, sound judgment and maintains professional demeanor in communication and relationships with others while striving to deliver best quality in daily work.
Overview
22
22
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Category Manager ERP Project Integration
Sobeys Inc.
09.2021 - Current
- Core Enterprise Project resource responsible to develop, reinforce future state processes and enable solutions through the lens of end-to-end functions and workstreams
- Represent Merchandising through the journey of transforming systems, key data tools, supplier partnerships and processes across all banners centrally into a National operating model
- Measure detailed design model scope with appropriate business leaders to ensure engagement on the Enterprise vision and roadmap are realized
- Support building blocks to unlock our capabilities in addition to identifying training needs of solutions, support development and delivery of training materials as needed
- Implement mass data structure changes to deliver a cohesive National Merchandise Financial Planning process that enables collaboration, accountability and efficiency for organizational target setting and performance
- Integrate increased control and governance for planning, forecasting and actualization of sales and margin
- Focus on data-driven forecasting and replenishment to achieve OSA improvements, increase sales, decrease inventory on hand and reduce waste
- Leverage alignment on hierarchy and POS assignments to create efficiencies and enable consistent enterprise-wide tool standardization
- Refine strategy, tools, and tactics around acquiring, engaging, and retaining customers to drive long-term engagement with industry leading promo mix and retention programs.
National Merchandising Manager – Non-Fresh
Sobeys Inc.
09.2019 - 09.2021
- Manage with support of Merchandising Director the Category Promotional Plan data used to assemble weekly, cycle and seasonal promotional activity, ensuring the targeted budgets are achieved strategically to improve performance and bottom-line results
- Cultivate foundational process changes for disciplined deployment of promotional and merchandising tools to improve campaign monitoring and optimize approaches from conceptualization to implementation
- Demonstrate the ability to influence cross functional departments assessing procedures and processes, implementing improvements, building team cohesiveness, and organize resolutions to support overall business stakeholders
- Institute strategic objectives for seasonal, short-term and long-term perimeter merchandising elements focused on key categories and market trends, utilizing engaging customer-facing plans to capture interest and drive profitable growth
- Work closely with Customer Experience and Replenishment focus groups to enhance customer service strategies will boost profitability, improve supply chain metrics, and sharpen operational support to drive KPI’s and inspire customer satisfaction
- Endeavor on pillar goal contribution to optimize sales mix, stabilize profitability and utilize value initiatives to seek out solutions, strategic options and efficiencies for the benefit of both customers and business results.
National Category Merchant – Non-Fresh
Sobeys Inc.
11.2017 - 08.2019
- Execute category plans by successfully delivering against the category pricing, promotion, assortment, and merchandising plans that support our strategies and financial requirements
- Lead supplier revenue stream sessions to facilitate achieved targets with Category Merchants by engaging merchandising and marketing opportunities discussion as a group
- Manage an optimal mix of margin within respective categories for Sobeys, Foodland, Safeway, Thrifty Foods & IGA West
- Track, and communicate actual category performance versus budget, target and/or forecast
- Build & maintain effective partnerships with the supplier community, store operations/ franchisees and other functional areas
- Manage implementation of product opportunities as the subject matter expert and support Private Label initiatives to cultivate market leading products trending with consumers
- Actively lead change with National business needs to leverage training, improve data resources, and aid in projects to optimize efficiencies for employees.
Category Manager – Sobeys & Foodland Atlantic
Sobeys Inc.
06.2007 - 11.2017
- Manage the execution of all category plans, promotions, and business partnerships to maximize sales and profit in Non-Food, Produce, Health & Beauty and Natural Source departments
- Facilitate the roll out of assortments for all Full Service and Community to leverage our business goals for both our customers and supplier partners
- Lead Flyer planning process with peer grocery team, build financial targets, block count breakouts by team, household and profit targets to ensure financial expectations are met
- Achieve annual department sales and profit utilizing flyers, locked in programs, driving focus category growth and market share
- Focus on finding and developing unique opportunities to create value by enabling a provocative and creative dialogue among people who can affect the company's direction.
Category Assistant – Sobeys & Foodland Atlantic
Sobeys Inc.
11.2001 - 06.2007
- Assist in the execution of all category plans, renovations and programs to maximize sales and profit in Produce, Beverages, Health & Beauty and Natural Source departments
- Work closely with space management on development and implementation of plan-o-grams
- Perform all data duties such as listings, de-listings, troubleshooting issues, customer service, prepare bookings for promotions, flyers, ensuring the cost, retail and gross margins are accurate
- Assisted in development of Atlantic Produce pricing database and daily maintained a continuous flow of all buyer information on products, pricing, cost changes and margin information
- Examine category sales and profitability to develop strategies to minimize shrink, maximize sales & service levels, and provide more accurate gross profit margins in future order guides.
Education
Bachelor of Arts (year 2) -
Mount Saint Vincent University
01.1995
Bachelor of Arts (year 1) -
Bishops University
01.1994
Academic Graduate Diploma Level V -
Cole Harbour High School
01.1993
Skills
- Global process management
- Training/Coaching
- Ability to resolve complex scenarios situations
- Strong business acumen (systems tools, data analytics)
- Detail-oriented
- Strong confident communicator
- Process Development
- SEO Optimization
- Business Needs Analysis
- Corporate Communication
Certification
- 2022 CMKG Certified Professional Category Manager (CPCM) Designation
- 2022 CMKG Certified Professional Category Analyst (CPCA) Designation
- 2021 CMKG Sobeys Category Management Fundamentals
- 2019 Promotion Optimization Certification
- 2016 Leading Change/Change Management Course Certification
- 2016 Developing Your Leadership Strengths (Strength Finder)
- 2014 Category Management Optimization Metrics Certification
- 2012 Bridge the Generation Gap Certification
- 2011 Respecting Diversity Workshop Certification
- 2008 Business Information Warehouse Phase II Project Tester, Documentation Publishing; Trainer
Languages
English
Full Professional
French
Limited Working
Timeline
Category Manager ERP Project Integration
Sobeys Inc.
09.2021 - Current
National Merchandising Manager – Non-Fresh
Sobeys Inc.
09.2019 - 09.2021
National Category Merchant – Non-Fresh
Sobeys Inc.
11.2017 - 08.2019
Category Manager – Sobeys & Foodland Atlantic
Sobeys Inc.
06.2007 - 11.2017
Category Assistant – Sobeys & Foodland Atlantic
Sobeys Inc.
11.2001 - 06.2007
Bachelor of Arts (year 2) -
Mount Saint Vincent University
Bachelor of Arts (year 1) -
Bishops University
Academic Graduate Diploma Level V -
Cole Harbour High School
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