Orgill Announces Realignments Within Purchasing Department

Orgill has announced changes to the structure and operations of its Purchasing department. These organizational changes reflect the company’s long-term plans for accelerated growth and a continued focus on its mission to help its customers be successful.

Orgill’s Purchasing department will now be divided into separate Merchandising and Replenishment divisions. This reorganization will allow the Merchandising division to focus on vendor relationships, promotions, pricing, sales, reviews and revenue generation. The Replenishment division will focus its efforts on conditioning inventory, maintaining service levels, inventory turnover and supply chain management.

“This division of Merchandising and Replenishment within the Purchasing department is a change that we have seen coming for some time now,” says Jeff Curler, executive vice president of Purchasing. “The company’s rapid growth and the new market realities we have seen develop over the last couple of years made this realignment even more important. This change helps us better address the distinctly different, yet connected, functions our Purchasing department deals with on a daily basis.”

According to company president and CEO Boyden Moore, this realignment will position Orgill’s teams to better serve its customers while improving efficiency and vendor relations.

“We know how critical it is that we evolve as a company and constantly look for ways to respond to market changes and create efficiencies within our own operation,” he says. “This is a perfect example of how we can achieve those goals. These changes will position Orgill and its customers for even greater success in the coming years, and I’d like to congratulate all of our team members involved in these changes for their hard work and dedication.”

As of Jan. 1, the Purchasing department is organized as follows:

Purchasing Leadership

• Jeff Curler was promoted to executive vice president of Purchasing
• Jim Wilson will continue as vice president of Exclusively Orgill (formerly known as Worldwide Sourcing).
• Lisa Pirtle was promoted to vice president of Replenishment and Vendor Support.
• Alan Shore was promoted to director of Merchandising, Seasonal.
• Heath Kennedy was promoted to director of Merchandising, Hardlines.
• Karen Meredith will continue as director of LBM Sales.

Moving forward, the split responsibilities of the merchandising and replenishments divisions within the Purchasing department will allow Orgill to focus more resources on these interconnected yet unique functions, according to Lisa Pirtle, who will oversee replenishment and vendor support in her new role.

“There are so many functions that are critical to the smooth flow of products, information and program support, and this new alignment allows us to continue working together as a team but have individuals who are dedicated to all the different functions we need to perform effectively,” she says.

“On the replenishment side, we will be tightly focused on maintaining relationships with our vendors to acquire the product our customers need in a cost-effective and efficient manner,” she says.

Within the new replenishment and vendor support division, Orgill has also added two new senior purchasing managers who will report to Pirtle and specifically focus on the seasonal and hardlines categories.

While Pirtle and her team will focus on working with vendors to keep product flowing, the merchandising division will work closely with Orgill’s vendor partners to maintain the pricing, promotions, assortments and support customers have come to expect.

“Although we are going to be focused on different sides of the vendor relationship, we have designed the new structure to really have our teams working together to better meet our end-customers’ needs,” says Alan Shore, director of Merchandising, Seasonal.

For example, Shore says the senior purchasing managers on the replenishment side will work closely with the senior category managers in Merchandising to make sure that all aspects of the product, from acquisition to the assortments, pricing and programs, are all designed for optimal retailer benefit.

“These roles are designed to work as counterparts,” Shore says. “They will be collaborative and ensure we are optimizing our relationships. The key thing is we want them to work together and be proactive for our customers. Now we have the structure in place and the specific roles to accommodate the growth our customers are experiencing and the new realities of the supply chain.”

To further support the mission within these new divisions, Heath Kennedy, director of Merchandising, Hardlines, says every member of the team has been given a clear understanding of what their roles are and how they support the broader goals of the company.

“We have created new positions and added new leadership roles within the department that create better alignment for us between the needs of our vendors and our customers,” Kennedy says. “We feel strongly that this puts us in the best position to serve our customers, create greater supply chain efficiencies and keep pace with our rapid growth.”