Gary Hardwick

- Managed customer pricing, trade promotions, and customer service with a focus on driving top-line sales, customer loyalty, and cost savings of $1.5 million by eliminating sales brokers - Trained Central sales teams as part of the acquisition of C&S by Central Garden & Pet - Executed plans for distribution, merchandising, pricing, and product placement - Oversaw Walmart and led line review process for C&S, consistently placed new items on shelf, grew share and increased Total Distribution Points - Contributed to a 98% OTIF rate through effective management of the customer service team - Led three price increase initiatives in 18 months with the most recent pricing action resulting $4.4 million annual increase

- Led the development, training, implementation and the monitoring of compliance as it pertains to sales and marketing team best practices for category management, trade spend optimization and sales operations - Managed the bidding and negotiation process and secured all appropriate syndicated data - Developed and implemented "One Source" view of POS using syndicated and retailer direct data - Successfully created and developed the Trade Promotion Management System - Developed business review process, presentations, managed trade publication budget, timing, and deliverables. Managed all aspects of major trade show planning

- Managed Interior Finishing product categories under the Homax Brand - Developed and coordinated the launch of new products, packaging changes, and point of purchase merchandisers at major retailers - Performed category management for major retailers - Trained professional contractors, sales resp and store managers on product benefits - Specialized in brand management, product development, promotions, packaging design, product pricing, training, trade show planning, product demo videos