Rich Sermone

CORE COMPETENCIES:

Team Hiring/Team Building–Almost every key hire developed and progressed to bigger roles and everyone is part of the team if they work for me.

Brand development-This is as much a sales responsibility as it is marketing’s.  In my current role, our top selling item represented 80% of volume in the largest channel at low margins. Through intense focus on improving sales mix with higher margin products, the item now is 40% of revenue and channel gross margins increased eight points, while still obtaining the overall revenue goal.

Omni channel go to market strategy-We improved overall revenue through expanding previously low volume channels. We launched a corporate gifting program that will account for 8-10% of sales revenue in 2021 from 0 and increased E Commerce six-fold in the last three years.

P&L improvement – I work collaboratively across departments to understand COGS, OPEX, gross margins and sales velocity to understand opportunities to increase profitability.  Last year we increased overall company margin by 10 points driven by overperformance in DTC sales combined with price increases and reducing OPEX and price increases in the wholesale business.

Programming Execution-Great programming is crucial to a brands success.  In May 2021 we participated in a Chardonnay program with four other wineries for one of the largest retailers in the country.  We were the only wine that did not have distribution in the chain and within thirty days, achieved 94% distribution gaining 180 stores in the process.