Andrew Marco Cavanna
Ramsgate,Kent
Summary
High end, results focused retail, hospitality & wholesale Commercial Director with an in-depth knowledge of quality food & raw materials whose primary objective is to make a difference and improve a business' financial position. Focus on procurement, buying, margin management & margin efficiencies
Overview
33
33
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work history
Commercial Director
Farmison.com
Ripon, North Yorkshire
2018.05 - Current
- Identify, shape & implement the buying strategy in line with F&Co business culture, direction & vision.
- Set the ethical standards in detail for the buying of all cattle, sheep, pigs & poultry
- Setup a supply chain & contract management directly with Farmers & abattoirs of various species & breeds to bring raw material into the business at the right time, right price in the right volume
- Introduced & coordinated a new NPD process to bring newness, sales growth & margin efficiencies into the business in a timely fashion whilst working with key stakeholders to deliver this newness
- Stabilised the produce margin & led the team effort to help improve the margin (15ppt% improvement since 2018) through the implementation of buying control measures, yielding, costings, pricing principles & stock valuation principles
- Implemented a carcase balance & waste management strategy through the introduction of new SKUs & waste to pet food
- Introduced ranging, pricing matrix & buying processes into a young, fast growing business to provide efficiencies whilst maximising seasonal buy opportunities & minimising stock risks.
- Responsibility for driving the trade & wholesale strategy, focusing on commercial efficiencies (non strategic part of the business)
- Business & budgetary planning including management & control of departmental P&L
- Lead the team responsible for the development & implementation of Farmison & Co retail ready ranges including the launch of Saucepan Ready TM
- Co-lead the steering committee that delivered the satellite prototype store CUT by Farmison.
Head of Fresh Food & Hospitality Buying
Fortnum & Mason
Piccadilly
2013.08 - 2018.05
- Determine the direction & strategy of all fresh foods at F&M with the objective to make it relevant to the local shopper
- Focus on the commercial growth and profitability of the fresh food department across all categories
- Delivered 1st year sales growth of +12% & 1st year profit growth of +26%; 2nd year sales growth of +11% & 2nd year profit growth of +14%
- Develop & implement retail space planning, concept changes in order to maximise floor sales & contribution densities
- Project managed & delivered the renovation in 2014 of the Lower Ground Floor Spirits space to help deliver sales growth of +155%
- Project managed & delivered the installation of a new 'Luxury counter' on the Lower Ground Floor delivering a commercially successful concept and much improved offer to customers
- Cross functional working to deliver Fresh NPD, encompassing the Technical team, Packaging & Marketing team & Retail team
- Cost negotiate at each stage - raw material, packaging & logistics to deliver NPD within budgeted margins
- Consolidated the hospitality and retail buying strategy to ensure a coherent buying policy across the business, to include a supplier rationalisation programme in Year 1
- Setup a nominated hospitality tendering programme to deliver savings of £237k in year 1
- Lead & steer the business' Waste Management committee to deliver an improved and sustained policy of food waste & conversion across the business - Waste to sales ratio dropped from 6.8% to 3.9% in Yr 2
- Attend weekly executive trade meetings and weekly executive masterplan meetings
Buying Manager Fresh Foods
Selfridges Retail Ltd
Oxford Street
2005.01 - 2013.05
- Buying control of fresh foods for Oxford Street and 3 regional stores
- Determined the strategy, direction & trend for fresh foods & implement accordingly focusing on quality & commercials
- Managed a combined own bought & concession portfolio valued at £14m of sales
- Successfully managed an own bought spend portfolio of £4.5m
- Launched Secretts Farm in 2006 into their first retail location as a mini concession within the Foodhall focusing on seasonality & freshness of produce
- Set up the seasonal planning calendar for F&V & worked with the retail team to improve the merchandising standards using seasonality for sales growth
- Concessioned the F&V dept through a tendering process which resulted in a sales uplift of 4 x revenue. Achieved through range planning, pricing matrix, operational input & merchandising.
- Was the first to introduce a Raw Milk Vending Machine to the UK in 2010
- Ensure Selfridges remained an exclusive market leading retailer through trend and product innovation and concession brand launches: My team were responsible for the launches of the some of the following brands now currently highly successful within the UK retail sector
- Two Chicks
- TrueFoods Stocks & Sauces
- Moma
- Shaken Udder
- Jimmy's Iced Coffee
- Ensured the Fresh department became profitable at a contribution level in 2008 through concession management, contract negotiations, retail cost negotiations & waste management
- Worked & delivered at ground level on the Project Ocean initiative introduced in 2011/2012 by working with the MCS & our Sustainability Dept
Regional Purchasing Manager
Ian Schrager Hotels
St.Martins Lane
2000.08 - 2005.01
- Consolidated the purchasing and cost control functions for both hotels & restaurants
- Standardised the purchasing and cost control policy & procedure for both properties to ensure all procurement was dealt with by the Purchasing Dept
- Project Managed & installed an F&B Cost Management software system for both properties in order to generate efficiencies.
- Implemented a supplier negotiation chart with targeted savings
- Supplier sourcing tendering & tender analysis across food, bev and non food categories focusing on consolidation of Procurement for both properties to include, meat, produce & dry stores
- Services Contract negotiations - Utilities, maintenance contracts, waste contracts
Stabilised and reduced the F&B costs for both properties culminating in c£220k savings in 18 months - Negotiated non food savings totalling c£150k within 12 months
- Carried out a full dept restructure for efficiency and productivity savings
Assistant Purchasing Manager
Conran Holdings Ltd
Liverpool Street
1999.05 - 2000.08
- Joined as part of the pre opening team of Conran Holdings' first hotel - Great Eastern Hotel
- Setup the F&B Management system (Fidelio) to manage F&B & non F&B inventory & costs
- Assisted sourcing, procuring and managing pre opening FF&E items within the Capex budget
- Setup production kitchen costing to apportion wages across food costs
- F&B cost control savings of £15k to budget in month 1
- Total F&B margin savings to budget in Year 1 £108k
Cost Controller
Conran Holdings Ltd
Wardour Street
1996.05 - 1999.05
- Manage the F&B margins of this famously large & busy outlet turning Over £13m pa
- Maximised the inventory management system to provide useful cost control analysis and inventory management
- Increased overall F&B GP% by approx 3ppt% in year 1 - valued at circa £260k
- Utilised the system to introduce an accurate menu engineering programme to maximise food cost efficiency
- Introduced beverage potential management in order to obtain a true beverage margin
Purchasing Manager
Le Meridien Hotel
Piccadilly
1993.04 - 1995.05
- Initially employed as an F&B cost controller
- Headed up a proposal to merge the Purchasing department with the cost control department to improve productivity and cost efficiencies
- Submitted a proposal for a complete department reorganisation
- Setup a clear purchasing and cost control policy for the business to maximise cost benefits
- Reduced the value of the beverage inventory by 70% in year 1
- Analysed the supply chain to identify consolidation & cost reductions resulting in 35% drop in the supplier database
- Successfully automated the procurement and cost control functions
- Successfully delivered targeted savings across the business in Food, Beverage & non Food items
Education
Bachelor of Arts - Hotel Management
University of Portsmouth
1990
GCSE -
Colfe's School
Lee, London1986
Graduate Diploma - Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS)
Thames Valley University
1999
Skills
- A sound, broad & detailed knowledge of food & food quality but always learning
- Sales, Cost & Profit improvements
- Negotiation & Business efficiency
- Team leading & Coaching
- Succession planning & team development
- Food trends & concepts
- High end retailing and hospitality
- Maximising Productivity within the supply chain
- Process Implementation
- NPD Planning
- Direction & Strategy Planning
- Entrepreneurial/Trading
- GAP Partnership trained negotiator
- Commercial strategy development
Certification
Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply - CIPS
Timeline
Commercial Director
Farmison.com
2018.05 - Current
Head of Fresh Food & Hospitality Buying
Fortnum & Mason
2013.08 - 2018.05
Buying Manager Fresh Foods
Selfridges Retail Ltd
2005.01 - 2013.05
Regional Purchasing Manager
Ian Schrager Hotels
2000.08 - 2005.01
Assistant Purchasing Manager
Conran Holdings Ltd
1999.05 - 2000.08
Cost Controller
Conran Holdings Ltd
1996.05 - 1999.05
Purchasing Manager
Le Meridien Hotel
1993.04 - 1995.05
Bachelor of Arts - Hotel Management
University of Portsmouth
GCSE -
Colfe's School
Graduate Diploma - Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS)
Thames Valley University