Directors Corner

SHAWN PALMATIER

Vice President of Revenue Management

What is your background and career path at Heidelberg?
My educational background includes a Manufacturing Engineering Degree and an MBA. Prior to coming to work at Heidelberg I spent 20 years in operational, leadership and consulting roles working for many companies and industries. My career focus has always been about continuous improvement and helping develop people, teams, processes and tools. I started working at Heidelberg in 2010 with Denise Olden and her team and I set out to transform how the company manages its inventory.

What are your job responsibilities and priorities?
As VP of Revenue Management I oversee and support the Supply Chain and Pricing Teams. What does being successful in this role look like? It really comes down to building the process, tools and team to manage the setup and maintenance of items, costing and pricing to enable the Supply Chain team to purchase at the right price, quantity and time. With all of that happening efficiently and effectively it enables our sales team to win in the market place and our margins to be on target with corporate goals and the laws of Ohio. As a member of the Director Team, I represent the business in a number of technology projects that are underway. This involves working closely with end users to get the requirements right and then working with the IT Team to deliver a successful end product.

Any recent accomplishments or notable projects from you/your team? 
Working with the Pricing Team and IT teams, we have recently completed the first two phases of a new supplier pricing application. This enabled us to streamline the request, review and processing of the 2020 price updates from our supplier partners. By the end of the year the third phase will be complete which will result in a web application that suppliers and sales teams can view and propose price changes. Once reviewed and approved these will push directly into our four databases that support the Ohio business. This will take us to the next level in accuracy and efficiency which again enables winning in the market.

Who do you interact with on a regular basis?
I work regularly with our IT Development Team on applications and reporting which support our Supply Chain and Pricing Teams. I also have worked regularly with VIP over the years to help influence the functionality in their system to meet Heidelberg’s changing needs. In my role I continue to work closely with our VPs of Sales and always support our Supply Chain and Pricing Teams.

What alcohol beverage trends are you seeing?
It is hard to ignore the success that we continue to have with seltzers such as White Claw. It has been fun over the years seeing tastes evolve and supporting Heidelberg in getting the right items in the right markets when needed.

How has the business and/or company changed since you joined Heidelberg? 
Quite simply it has grown. We added a team of Directors to support continuous improvement and deployment of best practice processes and tools. We have improved our training. We have evolved our business metrics and scorecards. I think Associates today have a clearer understanding of what is expected of them and as a supervisor I feel we are better at objectively measuring performance. That leads to a lot of great work that has continued to help our team grow and advance and help Heidelberg be successful.

How do you like to spend time when you’re away from work?
My wife Darlene and I recently celebrated our 22^ndwedding anniversary. We have a daughter Kayley who is a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati and a son Brenden who is a senior in high school. We like to travel and look forward to doing that a bit more next year as empty nesters. I also have been a soccer ref for the last two years and enjoy doing that in the spring and the fall. It is a great way to stay active in youth sports and get a bit of exercise in.