Alan Adato
Merchandising and Procurement Manager at Yesway
Accomplished account management professional.
An accomplished account management professional with expertise in category management, and project and product management for the convenience store, manufacturing and consumer packaged goods industries. Reputation for developing customer-specific analytics to show sales trends, category reviews, and assortment optimization for nationally recognized brands. Known for providing category analysis and consumer insights to develop programs and solutions such as product void summaries and competitive product analysis to grow business. Recognized for negotiating competitive and cost-effective vendor contracts. Knowledge of analytical and operational dashboards, return on investments, and continuous improvement (Kaizen).
Yesway
https://www.linkedin.com/company/yeswaystores
Manage a $25 million retail portfolio including all procurement activities for a start-up convenience store chain of 400 stores including the recent acquisition of Allsup’s Convenience Stores. Lead day-to-day activities of several categories, ancillary services, and private label initiatives.
·	Manage all aspects of the private label category for existing and acquired brands generating over $20 million in annual revenue. Seek qualified suppliers and introduce new items from ideation to distribution. Increased sales of Yesway private label over 130% with 25% fewer stores.
·	Oversee categories including Air/Vacuum, ATM, Ice, Money Orders/Money Transfers/Bill Pay, Prepaid Gift Cards, Propane and the introduction and expansion of CBD. Effectively negotiate contracts and foster trust relationships with vendors to achieve better cost of goods and quality of services.
·	Procure and introduce new services including music and messaging, filtered water dispenser kiosks, DVD rental kiosks and Amazon lockers that provide an additional $2 million in annual revenue. Work closely with legal team on contract terms and conditions. Effectively manage and communicate project scope, schedule, and budgets to internal stakeholders and vendors.
·	Develop, implement, and evaluate promotional activity and pricing strategies for all assigned categories including private label to drive category growth and deliver incremental gross profit.
·	Orchestrate the reorganization of a Yesway Marketplace concept store including introducing a new wholesale distributor, refining inventory, and providing store support. Increased year over year sales by 17%.
·	Nominated and selected as a member of the 2020 class of Champions of Change; an industry awards program to recognize emerging and established leaders in the industry.
Des Moines, Iowa Area
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Merchandising and Procurement Manager
McLane Company, Inc.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/mclane-company
Manage day-to-day tasks and SKU assortment optimization of the Kum & Go Convenience Store account. Coordinate item information to properly load into the McLane distribution system. Maintain an ongoing dialogue to promote idea sharing, faster customer communication, team building and issue resolution. 
•	Implement a daily report summarizing items that are out of stock allowing both McLane and Kum & Go to proactively identify and resolve stock replenishment issues.
•	Manage SKU assortment optimization of all stores by recommending correct item mix including deletion of slow moving items and introduction of new and promotional items.
•	Ensure items are correctly forecasted and communicated to McLane corporate buyers.
Des Moines, Iowa Area
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Account Specialist
Anheuser-Busch InBev
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ab-inbev
In this contract role provided category analytical support to the account teams of Anheuser-Busch for Casey’s Convenience Stores and Hy-Vee Grocery Stores. Responsible for category and account reviews, trend research, new item analyses, dashboarding and consumer insights. Utilized consumer, shopper and retail intelligence platforms including Nielsen/IRI, SwiftIQ, Symphony EYC and Market Track.

•	Introduced a weekly share and sales performance dashboard of the beer category. Resulted in providing management with preliminary share results prior to the release of Nielsen/IRI data. 
•	Created a Beer Scorecard outlining sales performance of competitive products resulting in a user-friendly report for account team to leverage insights with customers. 
•	Compiled distribution reports, basket analyzer reports and affinities to identify promotion, placement and trend opportunities of Anheuser-Busch products.
•	Implemented and tracked competitive shopping reports across several retailers to understand regional pricing, merchandising and cross-marketing campaigns within the retail environment.
Des Moines, Iowa
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Consumer Packaged Goods Category Analyst (Envision)
ACH Food Companies, Inc.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ach-food-companies
Provide strategic insights and analytics of exclusive and national branded foodservice products with annual sales exceeding $160 million. Produce customer-specific deliverables creating sales trends, category reviews and assortment optimization for leading customers including US Foods, Gordon Food Service and Reinhart Foodservice.

•	Organized a refinement initiative of the spices and seasonings category of US Foods divisions by effectively mapping over 700 items through a conversion process resulting in eliminating product voids and increasing sales by $3.2 million and market share by 2.2%.
•	Developed over 60 individual business reviews annually to be leveraged to grow category sales at US Foods and other customers including exclusive brand performance, product gap review, and analysis of competitive opportunities resulting in a $1.7 million increase in annual sales. 
•	Oversaw activation of over 1,200 foodservice and retail items to the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) providing customers product information including bar codes, nutritional information and marketing messages resulting in 90% accuracy rate compared to the industry average of 50%.  
•	Negotiated competitive and cost-effective contracts with leading foodservice research vendors including publication subscriptions, custom proprietary studies and professional services resulting in meeting $200,000 budget for research. 
•	Created a weekly dashboard summary for US Foods to compare shipments to actual sales for five sets of brand data resulting in an effective overview of key metrics to improve profits, maximize storage and inventory turns, and identify sales patterns and opportunities.
•	Develop and maintain an on-line site of over 500 articles and studies for sales, marketing, and research and development to retrieve industry statistics, consumer insights, and food trends to build customer presentations, introduce new product innovation, and create new recipe ideation.
Des Moines, Iowa Area
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Category Manager
Pella Corporation
https://www.linkedin.com/company/pella
Managed stocking program of windows, patio doors and accessories sold in over 1,700 Lowe’s stores. 

•	Oversaw and coordinated Lowe’s stocking program to maximize return on investment by compiling a qualitative analysis and recommended product resulting in increasing sales by $2 million annually.
Pella, IA
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Lowe's Account Specialist/Stock Inventory Manager
Pella Corporation
https://www.linkedin.com/company/pella
Oversaw Lowe’s Baltimore/Washington territory generating over $9.5 million in annual revenue while operating within a $25,000 budget. 

•	Managed and directed store associate training, order fulfillment, and interaction with Lowe’s customers resulting in exceeding annual sales goals by $150,000.
Baltimore/Washington DC
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National Account Sales Representative
Arbitron
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-arbitron-company
Managed product development, marketing and sales of radio audience research reports. Recruited and trained employees to sell audience research products. Oversaw sales team activities and incentive programs.
Columbia, MD
Product Sales Manager
Arbitron
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-arbitron-company
Published audience research studies for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Managed report processing including deadlines, execution, and printing.
Columbia, MD
Product Specialist
Bachelor’s Degree
Communications/Marketing
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University of Maryland
https://www.linkedin.com/school/university-of-maryland/
Certified Radio Marketing Consultant (CRMC) Accreditation
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Full Plate™ Certified - Foodservice Category Management by the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association
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US Foods CookBook Sales Management Platform (CookBook)
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Lowe’s Home Improvement POS Platform (LowesLink)
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International Foodservice Manufacturers Association / The Partnering Group
Full Plate Certified / Foodservice Category Management
Stacy Cannon
      
          



            
              
        
              
  

    
        I have had the pleasure of working with Alan for the past two and a half years.  He is a team player and always strives to perform at the highest level.  He is skilled at using multiple information sources to develop strategic customer presentations and tools.  His work in using data to identify high volume growth opportunities and collaboratively build effective business reviews has helped contribute to strong growth within our product lines and increased market share. He would be an asset to any organization he chose to work with. Stephen Owens
      
          



            
              
        
              
  

    
        Alan is an operational genius with the knack for staying focused on the big picture.  He is a problem solver who who uses collaboration effectively and makes everyone feel part of the team.  His understanding of the retail environment and dealing with the big box chains has given him the knowledge and skill that would benefit any area of the business.

Although his focus in the last few years has been operations management, I have been particularly impressed with the soft skills he has exhibited.  From working with a monster client, to talking through the most minor issues with our logistics team, Alan has shown an uncanny ability to communicate at all levels in an extremely effective manner.

Working with Alan was an absolute pleasure!
Liked by Alan Adato
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A Chef and a Humanitarian.The legendary Chef José Andrés is taking care of hungry people making their way out of Ukraine - one hot meal at a time!…
Liked by Alan Adato
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Really grateful to be here with the Casey's team and to be starting my first day as Communications Specialist. New faces, new industry, and a warm…
Liked by Alan Adato
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So true!#superbowl #superbowllvi #superbowlsunday #superbowl2022
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-adato-9aa14934
Dallas County, IA
Alan Adato
Inventory Manager at Pella Corporation
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-adato-7b7166109
United States
Alan Adato
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Des Moines Opportunities
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Arbitron Alumni
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Tones Alumni Connection
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Des Moines, Iowa Network Group
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Inventory Management Professionals
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