Kevin Mayer

Schwan’s Home Delivery separated from The Schwan Food Company in 2019. Their focus is on frozen food home delivery across the U.S. Establish direction and strategy for the Purchasing team with a focus on sourcing co-manufactured finished products, indirect materials, and service contracts. • Lead a purchasing team including three Senior Buyers and an Associate Buyer. • Manage vendor relationships in the US and globally. • Oversee the company’s sourcing activities, contract negotiations, and vendor relations, including 3rd party U.S. manufacturers. Resolve vendor challenges. • Meet with senior buyers to identify and pursue optimal strategic vendor partnerships. • Collaborate with Marketing and R&D teams to determine the evolving product mix, category strategy, and new product development aligned with changing food and population trends. • Manage high-level meetings with vendor leadership and internal executives to review vendor contracts, costs, innovation, and opportunities for business expansion. • Successfully develop and implement project plans, deliverables, metrics, and milestones for projects including cost savings, process improvement, and business continuity. • Evaluate capabilities for new potential vendors and establish sources in new markets as requirements dictate. • Develop annual cost-saving goals and implement business strategies that contribute to the company’s financials.

Managed product categories including poultry, seafood, sides, breakfast, vegetables, fruit, maintenance repair, and operations. Identified potential suppliers, and negotiated costs, terms, and conditions. • SME for assigned product categories, and alternate vendors and their offerings. • Monitored cost trends for key commodities impacting product categories such as corn/soybeans, dairy, and wheat. • Developed a consistent sourcing strategy to evaluate vendor capabilities and capacities. • Negotiated supplier pricing agreements/contracts. • Managed vendor relationships, contracts, and vendor promotional agreements. • Collaborated cross-functionally with Manufacturing, Sales, Marketing, R&D, Food Safety Quality, and Logistics to assure a strong executed strategy from manufacturer to customer.

Researched, identified potential new business concepts and ideas, and led implementation. • Generated ideas, developed, tested and sourced the vendors for many strategic sales projects such as new home delivery concepts. • Developed, tested, and implemented the concept of Freezer bags for home doorstep delivery, achieving $17M in sales in the first year. Sourced and tested freezer gel packs. • Negotiated pricing and contracts for ~$3M in new projects. • Increased revenue by creating marketing materials, managing photo shoots, and leading packaging improvements for programs including frozen vending, freezer bags, and items for hotel pantries. • Analyzed projects and provided recommendations for management regarding moving forward or halting projects. • Coordinated and planned frozen shipping operations for three fulfillment centers. • Selected as a Business Transformation Agent for an 18-month critical business initiative to implement routing and scheduling in the field sales locations. • Facilitated a weekly communication video from senior management to field sales personnel.

Managed divisions of Schwan’s including Home Service, Food Service, Consumer Brands, Bakery, and US Bancorp external account. • Managed, trained, and developed five Account Managers. • Assisted Account Managers in developing business relationships with prospective clients and securing business.