Scott Sumpter

Established financial and strategic business goals and objectives for merchandising division’s sales, profit, and inventory to ensure optimal productivity across 1,300 stores, supporting over $4B in multi-channel retail revenue. Analyzed category performance and industry trends to understand future market potential. Oversaw pre-season and in-season financial planning for over 50,000 SKUs with mix of seasonal and replenishment categories. Established annual sales and margin plans for all merchandise categories.

Established financial and business goals and the strategic direction of objectives for the merchandising division’s sales, profit, & inventory to ensure operational efficiency across 98 national stores and DCs and support $1Bn in multi-channel retail revenues; direct to consumer and brick-and-mortar. Contribute to and support strategic financial planning, open to Buy management, SKU planning, merchandise reporting and analysis, forecasting, store replenishment, allocation, distribution center and store inventory optimization. Major focus on optimizing and refining inventory management processes during economic uncertainty. Navigated the pandemic and supply chain crisis, presenting long lead times, and leveraged inventory to drive sales while minimizing financial risk, avoiding overstocks and out of stocks. 🔹 Forecast and allocate OH inventory spending $400MM across 10,000 SKUs 🔹 Navigated through the global pandemic achieving $1B in record breaking comp store sales 🔹 Set seasonal assortment strategy for holiday categories achieving sales increase YoY improved sell through with macroeconomic headwinds 🔹 Optimized inventory to support all channels of business to achieve sales, margin, in-stock, & turn goals; increased inventory turn YoY 🔹 Developed annual sales and margin plans for strategic merchandising initiatives meant to increase customer loyalty and drive sales through collections with exclusive product offerings; 🔹 Authored a demand planning forecasting process for Elfa; reduced out of stocks by 5% and backorders by 10% 🔹 Strategically curated and integrated an innovative small store format product assortment which is beating projected financial metrics and delighting customers 🔹 Led, coached, and mentored 4 direct and 9 indirect reports to achieve company and personal career goals by providing constructive feedback and succession planning; - Maintained an 85% retention rate 🔹 Partnered with IT on many digitalization initiatives

Led the Planning & Allocation team & set inventory and replenishment plans for all product categories. Supported strategic business initiatives related to product SKU planning, forecasting, store replenishment, allocation, distribution center and store inventory management. Set and manage customized store assortment for all store formats. Major focus on expanding the Planning organization to support store growth and business complexity. 🔹 Oversaw an annual inventory spend budgets of $300MM across 10,000 SKUs, and strategically navigated sales and inventory planning during the first year of the global pandemic 🔹 Managed and coached a planning team of 10 🔹 Participated as mentor for multiple employees in the department in the company’s formal mentor program; conducted onboarding and associate training; - Developed a key player on the team to advance to a Director role where they are now thriving 🔹 Optimized inventory to support all channels of business to achieve company sales plan and turn target of 4x annually with store out of stocks less than 5% and DC <10% respectively 🔹 Led the inventory planning for the addition of a second DC to network; established capacity plans for both DCs to support sales plans and achieve turn goals in year 1 and beyond

Analyzed business trends and determined sales and margin potential for merchandise strategies at the department and company level and ensured appropriate inventory levels were maintained to support $725MM in multi-channel revenues across the 70 retail stores and sole DC. Built and developed a strong team with the goal of increasing the Planning team’s visibility, credibility, and importance within the organization as it matured into the national retailer space from its origin as a small, founder-led specialty retailer and migrated away from its merchant focus. 🔹 Managed an annual inventory spend of $260MM across 10,000 SKUs 🔹 Developed led, and trained a 6-member team of merchandise planners - Created formal planning best practices which improved inventory turn and reduced out of stocks 🔹 Implemented multi-channel forecasting capability into the systems to better align forecasts by channel; decreased DC out of stocks by in the first year and increased online sales annually

Determined sales and profit targets for merchandise strategies at the department level, and assured proper allocation of merchandise to all stores maintaining required store in-stock levels. Supported the buyer in executing product assortment strategy.