Stephen Sabourin

Actively seeking full-time opportunities in merchandise planning, demand forecasting, and financial planning. In the meantime, I am consulting for the retail and wholesale industries with GLG, providing insights on merchandise and demand planning, inventory optimization, profitability strategies, and data-driven decision-making.

Led Planning team responsible for annual and seasonal financial plans by customer/ channel/ category, inventory and open-to-buy management, demand planning, sales analysis, allocation, and overall supply chain management. Hired, trained, and developed a team of five senior planners and managers while creating best practices across the planning organization where everyone took ownership of the business working closely with their counterparts in Sales driving profitability for the company. Strategized and collaborated with top customers including Walmart, Sam’s Club, TJX Companies, Costco, Lowes, The Home Depot, Ross, and Burlington. Drove inventory reduction initiative resulting in a -27% inventory improvement while achieving sales plan. Led the planning team through two warehouse consolidations facilitating strategic meetings, creating best practices, and following through on each step of the execution process resulting in a $15M annual savings for the company with only a minimal risk to sales.

Worked as a retail and product category consultant on a contract basis. Projects have included: Best in Class Assortment Planning Process Retail Space Planning & Allocation Best Practices Home Goods Retailers: Brick-n-Mortar & Ecommerce Perspective Bedding Industry Perspective Home Appliance Space Perspective

Christmas Tree Shops was a division of Bed Bath & Beyond. Led 14 Allocators and Planners in allocating product for initial store, seasonal sets, and store replenishment. Spearheaded next-generation store pilot test for 40 BBB stores with CTS product assortment across numerous product categories, producing $ 100 M+ in sales volume. Led weekly meetings with the senior leadership team to review business and make recommendations on actions needed to drive sales and maximize inventory.

Led 20 employees and oversaw merchandise planning and strategy for $3.5B in annual sales volume; managed housewares, kitchen & cleaning electrics, cookware & cutlery, tabletop & kitchen textiles, home organization & luggage. Recruited, trained, mentored, fostered, and built a team of 2 Managers, 8 Planners, and 10 Assistant Planners focused on driving sales and margin, developing product strategy, financial plans, and sales & receipt projections. Spearheaded company seasonal campaigns, including Back to College and Holiday campaigns, driving $750M+ annually and exceeding sales, margin, and turn targets. Drove $ 500 M+ annually by implementing and leading a Neighborhood Store Initiative of attributing stores and merchandise. Developed and trained internal planners and vendor partners on the company vendor collaboration and forecasting best practices increasing store in stocks and reducing end-of-life liability. Led the Forecast Accuracy initiative, improving sales forecast accuracy 10 basis points while helping stores replenish more accurately through the new replenishment tool called Assisted Store Ordering (ASO).

Oversaw 18 employees and managed $3.0B in annual sales volume for the bath division; basics, fashion, storage, accessories, furniture, tabletop, kitchen textiles, electronics, toys, personal care, and bedding basics. Achieved sales and inventory metrics by collaborating with multi-functional teams and overseeing merchandising activities and planning at all levels while partnering with key stakeholders to execute strategic plans including a SKU rationalization project and value assortment initiative. Led monthly financial planning meetings with all departments to review sales and turn performance vs. plan. Made recommendations for in-season adjustments to achieve plan. Presented monthly updated financial plans with strategy adjustments to the senior leadership team. Facilitated key stakeholder meetings at all levels of the organization, including the planning divisional meetings, seasonal campaign meetings, neighborhood store initiative, and the forecast accuracy team. Partnered with my GMM to drive a cost-saving initiative, increasing the level of direct imports we were procuring across numerous product categories, gaining an advantageous unit cost, thus increasing profitability.

Oversaw 14 employees and $3.0B in annual sales volume in the areas of the bedding division: basics, fashion, children, electronics, toys/gifts, personal care, personal care electrics, and window treatments. Led a product lifecycle initiative for the fashion bedding area, increasing the sell-through and profitability of dropped/ aged product. This process was later rolled out to all applicable departments. Created consistency on the approach to address safety stock levels by category of business to improve store in stocks and overall vendor performance. Identified business opportunities and risks to sales and margin by partnering with key stakeholders. Provided resolutions and identified risks and opportunities to present to upper management, and led the creation and implementation of best practices across the planning organization.

Managed $1.5B - $2.0B in annual sales volume in various combinations of the areas of kitchen, cleaning electrics, cookware, cutlery, home organization, and the bedding division. Grew Keurig K Cup business from $0 to a $ 300 M+ business and drove Tervis drinkware to $ 100 M+ annually by working cross-functionally with all impacted areas. Championed change in bedding division by introducing, planning, and managing a new assortment planning system and analysis tool to plan space and productivity by SKU/ store. Spearheaded the implementation of standard opening order quantities for the bedding division to gain consistency in approach for allocations and inventory levels. Planning and business lead as an SME (Subject Matter Expert) on the implementation of a new data warehouse system and a tool to measure SKU productivity by store.