Marie Olivarez

Experience

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  Kastle Systems

  Jun 2006 - Nov 2006

  Security Caller
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  Danone North America

  Jan 2010 - Jan 2018

  Serve as an ambassador of Yogurt, Water, Creamers, Milk, and RFG Beverages Category Growth Plans for HEB, Brookshire Grocery, Brookshire Bros, and Texas wholesalers. Responsible for driving Category Management principles through the application of strong, proactive data analytics and insights driven performance. Perform category analysis for DanoneWave team, Leadership & HQ Teams in an extremely fast paced environment. Perform competitive analysis to identify trends, opportunities and challenges to core business areas.Utilize syndicated and/or retailer specific data to develop, prepare and present information and recommendations in support of category management. Create strong presentations for key retail sales initiatives (such as retailer performance, trends & opportunities, pricing effectiveness, promotion effectiveness, market share gap analysis, etc.).Responsibilities include (1) Analytic expertise (Syndicated, Retailer POS, Panel, ProSpace) (2) develop action plans and recommendations based on data and insights (3) develop strategic vision and selling materials to support Category Growth Plan.Utilize IRI/Nielsen, ProSpace, Household Panel Data, Spectra, etc.) Show less Total territory covers 8 Retail Chains & 4 Wholesalers - Fiesta Mart, Foodtown, Seller Bros, Brookshire Brothers Lufkin, C&S Grocers Supply, Affiliated Amarillo, AWG GC, AG Baton Rouge.- Responsible for executing all business aspects: Assortment, Merchandising, Pricing, & Shelving- Experienced in quarterly & yearly planning in order to drive category growth for Dannon, Yocrunch, & Evian- Identify KPIs, and opportunities to grow profit margin, and market share- Strong creative collaboration with Category Manager in order to secure new item assortment, space expansion, and secondary display placement- Effectively manage $2 million in trade expenses for total territory, and P&L - Builds yogurt planograms for in store resets at Fiesta Mart, Foodtown, Seller Bros, and Foodarama- Successfully secured Category Captain spot at 4 Hispanic Retailers, which pulls from C&S Grocers- Leverage IRI date to fill core voids, propose space expansion, and increase assortment opportunities- In 2016, Secured & Executed 40 store Space Expansion at Fiesta Mart Show less Develop and manage relationships with retail chains and wholesalers including Associated Grocers Baton Rouge, Affiliated Foods Amarillo, Brookshire Brothers Lufkin, Rouses, and El Rancho. • Responsible for supporting all aspects of the business including Assortment, Merchandising, Pricing, and Shelving.• Identify sales targets, and opportunities to grow profit margin, and market share.• Present quarterly meetings to secure new item distribution, negotiate promotions, and ensure in store execution.• Effectively manage trade expenses• Utilize reporting tools to manage volume trends, and forecasting.• Leverage market data through IRI to fill core voids and increase distribution.Creates Retail Strategy & Oversee execution in North, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and South Arkansas. Manage Acosta teams consisting of 7 Retail Managers, and 170 retail representative. • Manage Acosta teams that are responsible for 1000+ stores within my markets.• Collaborate with Acosta teams to execute Dannon & Stonyfield's Assortment, Merchandising, Pricing, and Shelf initiatives. • Present quarterly meetings to align Acosta with our key initiatives, brand insights, and monthly promotions. Show less Oversee retail execution in North, Texas, Arkansas, Lousianna, New Mexico. Manage broker teams consisting of 7 Unit Managers, 2 Retail Sales Managers, and 170 retail representatives. • Serve as key point of contact between Acosta brokage team and Dannon, Stonyfield, Yocrunch.• Monitor & Evaluate broker teams on KPIs, store audits, market visits, and monthly work withs. • Ensure the Acosta broker teams are aligned with Dannon & Stonyfield HQ priorities. • Present quarterly meetings to align the Acosta teams with Dannon & Stonyfield's key initiatives, brand insights, and monthly promotions.• Monitor & evaluate broker execution at retail using IRI, Qlikview, NARS, IQubed. • Align with KAM / CBM, weekly on sales priorities. Show less Responsible for managing sales of 40 Retail Stores(HEB & Kroger) within two marketsPenetrate management on weekly basis, with strategies to increase sales using account specific dataDrove additional category sales & profit Create & present innovative strategies to key decision makers on opportunities to drive incremental salesAnalyzed & forecasted orders on a week to week basis Worked & collaborated with team members to implement new ideas and techniques to accomplish collective sales objectives Show less

  • Category Strategy & Insights Manager

    Jan 2017 - Jan 2018

  • Key Account Manager

    May 2015 - Jan 2017

  • Key Account Manager/District Manager

    Jun 2014 - May 2015

  • District Manager- Southwest & South Central

    Nov 2012 - Jun 2014

  • Sales Representative

    Jan 2010 - Nov 2012
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  Mars Petcare US

  Jan 2018 - Apr 2021

  Lead the Center of Excellence for the Wet Dog Food, the 2nd largest Category represents 25% of total business. Collaborated with cross functional partners to drive increased baskets, develop actionable strategies to enable field teams with their customers. Partnered with Kantar through shopper insights to understand Refrigerated Pet Food placement to drive 55% of sales.Developed aisle placement for Refrigerated Pet Food to drive increase awareness.Engaged & Partnered with field teams to help implement Picture of Success for Wet Dog & Shopper Based Design principles.* Developed 3 - 5 year Space Expansion Story for Wet Dog Food Category * Co-Lead the Portfolio Optimization annual planning for Wet Dog, which drove 34% of total business growth * Co-Lead alignment with Portfolio Optimization team to deliver all the plans for Long Range Planning team Developed Portfolio Optimization Summary Output for the field teams to analyze their annual plans and project future assortment opportunities.Developed a 2022 Why Pet Story to all field teams to share why pet parents are important.Partnered with Kantar Retail to understand the right balance of Singles and MPs across all channels within Wet Dog Category. Developed 2022 Understanding the right balance between Singles & Mps for Wet Dog Food to ensure all field teams could have the right ratio across all channels. Show less Ambassador of Petcare Category at HEB, and drove our business +14.2% in 2019, +8.5% in 2020.Lead the 1st HEB Visit to our HQ and Innovation Center to further develop our partnership.Established a strategic partnership with HEB BDM, Providing Mars Petcare with the Category liaison position. Allowing me to be the only manufacture to build store level pogs, and lead resets & NIPs.Partnered with HEB BDM to secure 1st chain wide aisle integration; Allowing HEB to regain shoppers, and increase basket size. Collaborating with the BDM we remove 2 low performing competitive items in Cat Treats, while helping her regain shoppers by adjusting the shelf to drive trial.Engaged with cross functional CSI HQ teams to identify & execute our Center of Excellence Principles at HEBDeveloped a strategic vision for HEBs Petcare department to drive shoppers back. Lead and coordinated with team on the first HQ visit with HEB partners in 5 years. Ultimately driving strong collaboration on Category Initiatives, and creating the opportunity to drive key shelving changes in HEB stores for 2020 and beyond Show less

  • Senior Category Development Manager

    Jan 2020 - Apr 2021

  • Category Manager

    Jan 2018 - Jan 2020
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  Kellogg Company

  Apr 2021 - Oct 2023

  Category Manager

  Category Insights driven ambassador of Cereal, Toaster Pastry, Bars, Crackers, Salty Snacks, Frozen Breakfast, and Meat Substitutes.Established a strategic partnership with HEB BDMs for Cereal, Crackers, Salty Snacks, and Frozen Breakfast. Providing Kellogg's with the Category Advisorship. Allowing me the ability to provide strategic planograms and shelving initiatives that will drive increase baskets, greater buyer conversion, and ease shopability.Collaborate with the Cracker BDM to create the 1st Bagged Cracker set to engage the heavy snack buyer & millennial shoppers. Driving Category growth, reduced leakage, and grow purchases with Millennial Shoppers.Engaged with cross functional CSI HQ teams to identify & execute our Perfect Shelf Principles & Occasion Based Category Vision at HEB.In Cereal, I helped implement Target Age Flow, secure doors/windows for Top 2 Kelloggs Brands. Secured 4 Net Gains, increased ACV on key items to 90% and grew TDPs +25%. All of these strategies allowed our business to grow +$16M vs ya and regain our share position. Recognized by Senior Leadership in Q2'2022 by being awarded the Kellogg's Master’s award for Most Strategic & Collaborative Category Manager.Participated/Partnered with Hispanic Initiatives Task force to better understand the Hispanic consumer Show less

• 

  Post Consumer Brands

  Mar 2024 - now

  Senior Account Manager

  Manage $25M business for Post Pet at HEB. - which includes brands Kibbles n Bits, Nutrish, Nature's Recipe, 9 lives, and Gravey Train.- Responsible for executing all business aspects: Assortment, Merchandising, Pricing, & Shelving- Develop yearly plans in order to drive category growth for Post Pet.- Identify KPIs, and opportunities to grow profit margin, unit growth, and market share- Strong creative collaboration with Category Manager in order to secure new item assortment, and secondary displays.- Effectively manage $6 million in trade expenses for total portfolio, and P&L - Leverage IRI data to fill core voids, and increase assortment opportunities. Along with driving Category growth. Show less