Sreedhar Thota

Project / Contract role - Inventory and Inbound Freight

• After auditing the inputs and outputs for the Blue Yonder Planning System, led a cross functional team (Finance, Operations, & Data and Analytics) to achieve a $35M (vs the $21M goal) in Inventory waste reductions for the fiscal year by setting up financial controls for opportunistic buying, and by adjusting the "Make to Stock" inventory model to a "Make to Demand" model for Raw Material & Finished Goods Inventory.
• Recommended a hub and spoke model for our Inbound freight by investing in a Consolidation Center for centralized planning & accuracy, & to reduce in the overall Freight costs (FY24 goal of $15 Mil)

• Reported to the CFO & was hired to help build the FP&A function from the ground up – Responsible for hiring, coaching & setting up my team (8 professionals) for success partnering with the various business units & functions
• Set up the rhythm of the business with LRP, AOP, Monthly Business Reviews (MBR), along with easy-to-use analytics/reporting framework & Dashboards
• Improved Topline & Demand Forecast Accuracy to 95% + using a combination of Advanced Stats, Driver Based Predictive, Machine Learning
• Outbound Transportation: Directed the modeling & negotiation efforts, recommended to the Board of Directors, which led to the selection of CEVA an (ocean logistics company), & consequently optimized the Freight – Container costs balancing spot & long-term rates
• Overhead & Capex Management: stood up an overhead cost management process/culture within the SC FP&A team that enabled $2Mil reduction in overhead & capex by $15 Mil.

• Product Champion for Anaplan for global financial planning & IBP for Cargill
• Led in the pilot implementation leading a global team consisting of an offshore team in Bengaluru India, FP&A team members in Minneapolis, Amsterdam & Consultants from Deloitte
• Made the case for Driver Based Predictive Modeling & ML in FP&A & reduced Forecasting Bias & MAPE at the Corporate Cargill level working with Cargill’s Supply Chain Center of Excellence
• Sr
• Manager FP&A – Feed Division (Business Unit CFO): Led the FP&A function for the $600M Animal Feed business, partnering with the VP/GM to drive growth, running the business review process, & developing long/short-term strategic plans
• Partnered with the Director Pet Food to help Cargill pivot to the fast-growing & profitable Pet Feed & Aqua space leading to $60M in organic growth, Made the case for Capex & investment spend of over $100 million with IRRs greater than 25%.

• Finance partner owning Amazon Retail’s Inventory Turns goal to increase from 7.8 to 8.0 Turns resulting in $50M in working capital & holding costs reduction
• Liaison between Amazon’s Retail & the Supply Chain Optimization Team to improve forecast inventory & bridge actuals to plans
• Made the case for an Inbound Consolidation Center at Shenzhen, China to serve both EU & NA resulting in lowered freight & working capital costs (inventory) - $40M.

A public Middle Market Company (NYSE – BTN), ($320 MIL REV)

• Helped Ballantyne foray into digital content & media - an adjacent market, creating a new significant revenue stream which added 40% to the top line through the acquisition of Convergent Media Systems, a subsidiary of Sony USA
• During Integration, I led the accounting team managing Month End Close, identified cost reduction opportunities of 1 mil USD from SGA & Burden, & helped transition the ERP from Great Plains to SAP
• Championed the FP&A & the capital budgeting process for the acquired company to align with the market environment & enable the acquired company to scale effectively from $90 mil sales to $110 mil sales in one year

• Developed a portfolio approach to strategic investments to better allocate EnviroTech’s capital; some of the results include the building of 3 logistics facilities to strengthen EnviroTech’s core market penetration efforts
• Successfully analyzed, planned, & executed the acquisition of 3 companies in a span of 4 years leading to an increase of 36% top line growth & an increase of 30% bottom line growth
• Led a diverse team consisting of key sales, marketing, & operations personnel to overcome constraints of supply & pricing for certain products enabling us to increase the overall margins by 6%