Kent Arett

Experience

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  Sears Catalog

  Sept 1987 - Aug 1993

  Vice President of Operations

  Turned around this 100-year-old catalog from losing hundreds of millions of dollars to profitability in five years. Improved sales forecasting both pre-season and in-season using regression analysis; reduced inventory requirements by $125 million. Established customer profile system of all customer contacts for analysis and decision support.  Replaced manually marked-up catalogs with a multi-media system and reengineered the replenishment system. Saved $28 million annually. Installed high-end desktop publishing for catalog creation. Saved $4 million annually.  Automated 2,200 catalog dealer stores and 763 retail catalog desks. Saved $50 million annually. Trained store and distribution people in the value of returned product and instituted returns handling procedures, which put 85% of returns back into stock rather than into liquidation or scrap Reduced the number of distribution centers from seven to five and redesigned the transportation network. Developed EDI-based Source Filled Order system, which grew to 26% of the business without requiring any inventory. Show less

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  Damark International, Inc

  Jul 1993 - Dec 2000

  Sr Vice President of Operations

  Turned around this ten-year-old company from losing money to profitability in less than three years. Increased net sales 14%. Better forecasting reduced backorder and customer cancellations. Installed a homegrown credit authorization and settlement system, decreasing the credit cancellations.  Improved circulation with a new customer database and better de-duplication processes. Reduced  advertising expenses by 5%. Built and staffed three new call centers. Changed customer service to 800 service and increased staffing, which resulted in a 12% reduction in call center costs and increased customer response rates. Built a new distribution center and lowered distribution costs by 15%. Shipped 60% of packages on the same day ordered, increasing customer response rates. Reduced transportation expense by $3.5 million annually. Proved to UPS that Damark could dynamically change zone skip delivery points daily, resulting in an unprecedented 10% discount. Rebuilt the information systems organization. Designed and installed state-of-the-art systems, including a new three-tiered client server order entry system, a new customer database, new accounting and marketing information systems, and a new distribution system Show less

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  The Popcorn Factory

  Sept 2000 - Dec 2005

  President and CEO

  The Popcorn Factory had severe problems handling the volume during 2000, I was hired to fix the problems and to grow sales. Increased sales for both consumer and corporate 38% and improved EBITDA from negative 3.25% to positive 11.7%.  Worked with vendors to secure dating on raw material and catalog production purchases. Increased production capacity to ship fresher product and minimize cash flow. Reorganized the call center and information systems.

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  The Big Popper, Inc

  Dec 2006 - Oct 2011

  Business Owner

  Developed concept of showing the production process as theater. Built an eCommerce solution to process orders and create personalized gifts with pictures and gift messages on the tins. Designed logo, unique popcorn bag, store layout and equipment sizes so that all production processes were theatre and worth watching. We encouraged people to sample our popcorn and got great reviews with 97-98% purchase rate.

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  Wiland Direct, Inc

  Oct 2011 - Feb 2014

  Systems Developer

  Retooled my programming and systems development talents. Learned Perl programming, C++ programming, MYSQL, and LINUX. Wrote many programs using these tools. Wrote Business requirements and design documents.

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  Gardens Alive

  Feb 2014 - Dec 2018

  General Manager

  Reduced operating expense and improved product quality Revised circulation plans for ailing apparel catalog Conceived and executed a packaging concept that lengthened the amount of time a plant would be viable during shipment. Designed, installed, and brought on-line a new distribution center. Reduced labor in the Greenhouse Pre-Pack area by $400,000 annually. Outsourced bottling operations and revised the fertilizer packaging

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  Self-employed

  Jan 2019 - now

  Consultant