Tom Jennings

Vice President, Merchandising and Retail Operations @Houston Astros

Houston, TX, US

Manage the overall retail operations for the Houston Astros Baseball Club at Minute Maid Park in Houston, TX and the Astros new Spring Training facility in West Palm Beach, FL and all Astros owned and operated affiliates - Sugar Land Skeeters, AA - Corpus Christi Hooks, A - Fayetteville Woodpeckers)- Planned and executed retail vision for new joint facility in West Palm Beach, FL. Exploded sales and per cap, posting 5 consecutive years of double digit growth of both metrics- Create budget for retail department, forecasting monthly sales, cost of goods sold, staffing payroll and supply acquisition costs- Headed up the transition from a concessionaire led retail department to a team run retail department, working through inventory conversion, product selection, pricing strategies, store layouts and staffing plans- Oversaw the renovation of multiple team stores, budgeting fixture acquisition, point of sale hardware/software and signage- Manage open to buy, focusing receipts on key dates and timelines. Work with vendor partners to purchase product for retail locations, managing profit and loss of over skus- Lead buying team in evaluating shelf space plans by utilizing fact based analysis to maximize sales, profitability and turn, while creating strong brand awareness for team in apparel, headwear and novelty categories- Doubled Retail sales in first two years with limited on field improvement. Raised Retail sales by 4X in first three years with the team, 10X in the first six years- Improved profitability of Retail department to team by 10X in first three years- Significantly improved all Retail KPI\'s for the department including customer average spend, average units per transaction and average dollar sale- The work on the Woodpeckers brand and subsequent retail assortment led to the team being awarded the 2019 Best New Logo/Branding Award by Baseball Digest- Awarded MLBPA Player\'s Choice Team Retailer Award (\'14).

Indiana University Bloomington

BS, Management