Mastrian to advance category management at Rite Aid

Drug Store News, July 6, 1998 by Lisa I. Fried

Executive vice president of marketing Beth Kaplan, to whom Mastrian will report, sat down with Drug Store News to talk about Mastrian's role at Rite Aid and the evolution of the chain's category management department.

Mastrian joins Rite Aid on the heels of the termination of Kevin Mann, who had worked at the chain for more than 20 years until leaving in mid-June.

"Kevin made a great deal of contributions over the years, and we wish him well, but you need a different person at different times," she said.

"The company has changed so dramatically over the last couple of years in size, complexity and sophistication that we felt we needed a new type of leadership in the category management organization." Mastrian, who was Revco's top merchandising executive before joining Office Max last year, has a reputation as "being an extraordinarily good trainer who works well with category managers, and has a good sense of what is happening in the market," Kaplan said.

These are critical skills because the chain has hired several new category managers in the past year, and its entire staff is still evolving into the type of business chiefs Kaplan hopes they will become. "Jim Mastrian and I share the same vision," said Kaplan. "We want the category managers to be like product managers in a consumer products company. They will have strict objectives and a strategic business plan, and their compensation will be tied to it."

When Kaplan joined Rite Aid in 1996, the category management organization was still acting more like buyers than category managers, and she, along with managers in the department, has been steering the staff into true category management.

"What we have been able to do is extraordinary," said Kaplan, noting that she would put Rite Aid's nine category managers up against any other chain's team. However, there are still steps up the ladder to climb, she said.

She and Mastrian share a common belief that some retailers can get too dependent on vendors in the category management process. "Vendors are important, but you can't have category managers simply funneling information from them. Yes, vendors have consumer insight, but when push comes to shove, they don't know our stores. Our category managers do."

With Mastrian on board, and Rite Aid veteran Jerry Cardinale as his second in command, Kaplan is confident that the category managers can perfect their assortments, pricing, promotions, adjacencies and merchandising approaches.

"We always knew Jerry would come back into the category management organization," said Kaplan, noting that before working the past three years in the information systems department, he worked for 25 years in store operations and merchandising at the company.

No more changes planned

At this point in time, no additional changes are planned for the category management department, according to Kaplan. Rite Aid has promoted Cardinale, vice president of information services development, to senior vice president of category management. The category managers will continue to report to Mary Verbryke, vice president of category management, and Rod Kautz, director of category management. Kautz and Verbryke will report to Cardinale, who will report to Mastrian. Mastrian will report to Kaplan.

In related news, Kaplan has assumed management of the distribution and logistics department, functions that previously reported to Tim Noonan, president and chief operating officer. The shift makes sense because the company wants to mesh the distribution centers and the category management organization closer together, reduce inventory levels, increase service to the stores and leverage the buying power of the distribution centers, Kaplan said.