Gary Dahl
Sales Manager - Strategic Response (SMU) · Columbia Sportswear
Hillsboro , ORIn My Own Words
I have completed over 20 years of experience in the retail/wholesale/manufacturing industry. Areas of experience include Store Management, Inventory Buying/Planning, Direct Marketing Analysis/ Planning & Product Line Management.
My experience includes exposure to Apparel Design/Development, Sourcing, Materials Planning & Financial Backlog Forecasting.
I have worked for/with both national and regional retailers in the categories of: Department Stores, Big Box Sporting Goods, Outdoor Specialty, Catalog & Internet in both the U.S. & Canada with some limited exposure to overseas retailers.
Specialties: Inventory Planning/Buying/Allocation, Product Line Management, Product Sales & Merchandising Presentations, Inventory/Business Financial Analysis, Strategic Planning/Execution, Marketing Performance Analysis
Work Experience
Sales Manager - Strategic Response (SMU)
Columbia Sportswear2013 – 2016
• Oversee the sales aspects for Special Make products in the U.S. market. This is broad in scope but includes processing requests from reps and customers, ensuring items are moving through the internal processes, procuring CADS & samples on the front end. Once styles are buy ready, ensure set up in necessary systems, track orders for accuracy and timeliness, manage deviations and cancellations, pricing issues and track and report sales and margin for SMU products
Planner - REI Private Brands
REI2012 – 2013
? Develop and monitor strategic sales plans and create key category financial metrics including sales, turn, margin and in-stock goals. Ensure alignment between financial plans and the product team’s assortment strategies. Build and support relationships with product teams to influence effective business decision making.
Inventory Analyst
Recreational Equipment Inc2006 – 2012
Responsible for forecasting sales, managing inventory movement and allocating product to stores and direct sales channels. Analyze all sales channels at the vendor, department, class, item, region and location levels. Responsible for forecasting appropriate inventory flow and sales volume. Work closely with merchandising team and product vendors to analyze product performance and make decisions that directly impact the bottom line.
Apparel Merchandising Manager (PLM)
Columbia Sportswear2004 – 2006
Responsible for merchandising special make apparel for all genders. Includes assortment planning, pricing management, working closely with sourcing, planning, sales, product development, design and other internal departments. Make presentations to internal management and customers.
Direct Marketing Specialist
Macy's Northwest (Bon Marche)2001 – 2004
Responsibilities include use of a dynamic database to target customers for direct marketing strategies. Analysis of events and communication of results as it relates to response rates, sales lift, and return on investment. Work with merchant organization and vendor community in making recommendations for marketing opportunities. Also perform other analysis of general business challenges in relation to sales.
Inventory Planner
Macy's northwest (Bon Marche)1999 – 2001
Responsible for location planning, management of sales, stock levels, gross margin, turnover, unit capacities and presentation levels. Work with replenishment office in establishing and maintaining appropriate presentation minimums on basic items to achieve desired sales results. Worked with vendor planning teams in the execution of strategies to drive business. Consistently achieved lowest out of stock percentage for basics items in all of Federated for my assigned categories.
Assistant Buyer
Macy's Northwest (Bon Marche)1997 – 1999
Assisted the buyer in assortment selection, markdown projections, advertising strategies, and vendor performance analysis. Other responsibilities include price change entry, maintaining advertising files, order entry and tracking. Responsible for communication of all vendor performance data to the vendors. Took over buying responsibility of licensed apparel for Activewear concept shops in September 1999.
