Anthony Vallone
Summary
Strategically focused Merchandise Planner, known for high productivity and efficient task completion. Skilled in inventory management, demand forecasting, and data analysis. Strong competencies in analysis, presenting conclusions of analysis to drive decisions, and building strong partnerships.
Overview
30
30
years of professional experience
Work History
Merchandise Planner, Footwear Division
CitiTrends
02.2023 - Current
- Responsible for pre-season planning and in-season management of the total footwear business (ladies, men's, boys', and girls') with $55 million in annual sales from 600+ stores.
- Grew the ladies' dress business by 25% compared to the previous year by working with cross-functional teams to execute receipt flow in time for peak Easter selling, utilizing SKU-level reports to build receipt plans.
- Successfully led the implementation of a new planning system for regional and store-level plans and analysis.
- Targeted optimum stock levels by store.
- Developed and presented growth strategies to the Senior Leadership Team to help fund footwear sales and regain higher penetration of total company sales.
- Met with regional field managers to present forward merchandise strategies and gain feedback from the field team.
- Present forecasts and recommendations to the CEO and senior leadership monthly.
- Achieved improved profits by optimizing seasonal inventories to exit with less carryover inventory.
- Worked closely with vendors on new product launches, ordering processes and inventory management systems.
Merchandise Planner, Wholesale
Cutie Pie Baby
09.2020 - 05.2022
- Recruited to lead a newly created Planning department
- Prepared, Analyzed and Lead Pre-Season Planning for Key Accounts with Sales Team
- Recommended Key Categories of business to grow, maintain or downtrend based history, sales and margin
- Soley responsible for purchasing 'Stock' inventory to sell off in-season
- Analyzed SKU Conversion and recommended SKU counts with Design team
- Revamped existing Excel spreadsheets to a more dynamic / automated process to track Pre-Season Orders
- Forecasted Key programs and met with Production to better utilize Factory down time and reduce costs
- Created season codes for each holiday to better track time-sensitive deliveries and work with Shipping dpt
- Present overall Inventory and Sales trends to company during weekly meetings
Merchandise Planner, Wholesale
American Exchange
03.2019 - 09.2020
- Company Overview: Joined Company to develop a planning team and culture for a family-owned watch company
- Introduced core planning functions to better project future production needs by style/account
- Liaison between Sales Team and Production to forecast style level needs with factory lead times
- Produced monthly reports for Owner and Sr Management to review performance across major programs, and by account
- Offered recommendations for future product direction based on best sellers
- Lead weekly calls with key retail partners (Walmart, JCPenny, Macys, Kohls, Ross Stores) to review our performance in their stores and highlight opportunities for growth
- Manage new item/program set up in main software for proper category conventions
- Review aged inventory on monthly basis with COO to ensure we keep inventory within 90-120 days
- Joined Company to develop a planning team and culture for a family-owned watch company
Retail Merchandise Planning, Sportswear Division
Burlington Stores
Florence
09.2015 - 04.2018
- Led merchandise planning functions to support $1.2 Billion Ladies Sportswear business
- Developed Pre-Season category plans to support assortment strategies (comp sales, MD rates, IMU ,GM)
- Financially accountable to deliver top line sales growth while managing the P&L to include MD cadence, aged inventory, pricing, markup and shrink rates
- Analyzed and reviewed Vendor opportunities with merchants to develop strong vendor growth plans
- Held strong partnerships across all levels of the merchant team to align on strategies and action plans
- Partnered with GMM on Pre-Season assortment plans to successfully achieve strategies and present to the Executive Leadership Team
- Led In-Season activities to grow the business by trending & re-evaluating opportunities & mitigating risk
- Grew Sportswear penetration to Total Company sales from 19.2% to 20.5% by organizing classification structure to quickly target and measure key trends across Missy Moderate, Better, Special Sizes and Juniors
- Identified opportunities to add new emerging businesses into the assortment, such as Fleece Leggings to continue into the fall season and Capris Activewear for key spring sales growth
- Recruited to help design and launch Proof of Concept and Pilot team for new Location Planning process after successfully implementing similar project for Ross Stores
- Required collaboration with Accenture consulting team and cross functional teams to add business perspective to design phase over a 12 month process
- Led 2 selected businesses to Pilot the new process and provide feedback with changes to enhance the process prior to the Wave 2 rollout
Entrepreneur/Small Business Owner
MaidPro
Cranford
09.2011 - 09.2015
- Owner/Operator of start-up business to provide residential and commercial cleaning services
- Created all tools necessary to start up, advance and grow the business including:
Retail Merchandise Planning, Center Core
Ross Stores, Inc.
NY
10.1997 - 07.2011
- Managed business including: Shoes, Dresses, Accessories, Lingerie, Hosiery, Fine Jewelry and Childrens
- Partnered with DMM and GMM to share Pre-Season division goals for top-line sales, gross margin, markup and inventory
- Implemented a new process to build plans beginning with Vendor review of sales and profit to build into category level plans which helped protect stable vendor business and allow for growth into new vendor businesses and increase the number of vendors with which we did business
- Chosen as the initial two businesses to pilot the new Location Planning model for Shoes and Dresses
- Successfully led change management for planning and merchant teams to embrace new Location Planning function; improving turnover by 12% the second season on the new process
- Collaborated with each DMM to present Pre-Season plans for Sales, IMU, MDs and Turn Over
- Instrumental in recreating entirely new assortment structure for Shoes involving MD liquidation
- Reviewed inventories at a regional level to best direct product to performing regions
- Met with DMM weekly to discuss In Season business opportunities and/or risks to the plan
Retail Merchandise Planner/ Allocation
Macy’s Department Stores
NY
07.1995 - 10.1997
- Merchandise Planner to oversee planning for Dinnerware, Flatware, and Gifts
- Controlled receipts and OTB for basic replenished goods
- Managed company store initiatives such as 'small store strategies' to allow smaller stores to reach potential
- Worked with vendors weekly to review sku and brand performance and set assortment needs
Education
B.A. - Statistical Psychology, Economics
Rutgers University, Rutgers College
New Brunswick, NJ05.1994
Skills
- MS Office
- JDA Retail Planning Systems
- Advanced Excel user
- XLOOKUP
- Pivot tables
- Nested IF statements
- Sales forecasting
- Inventory management
- Data analysis
- Trend analysis
- Presentation skills
- Effective communication
- Category management
- Seasonal planning
- Margin optimization
- Markdown management
- Demand forecasting
- Open-to-buy management
Timeline
Merchandise Planner, Footwear Division
CitiTrends
02.2023 - Current
Merchandise Planner, Wholesale
Cutie Pie Baby
09.2020 - 05.2022
Merchandise Planner, Wholesale
American Exchange
03.2019 - 09.2020
Retail Merchandise Planning, Sportswear Division
Burlington Stores
09.2015 - 04.2018
Entrepreneur/Small Business Owner
MaidPro
09.2011 - 09.2015
Retail Merchandise Planning, Center Core
Ross Stores, Inc.
10.1997 - 07.2011
Retail Merchandise Planner/ Allocation
Macy’s Department Stores
07.1995 - 10.1997
B.A. - Statistical Psychology, Economics
Rutgers University, Rutgers College
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