Phillips Pet Appoints Thibodeau as VP of Merchandising

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Phillips Pet Food & Supplies recently named Elizabeth Thibodeau, MBA, as Vice President of Merchandising. Thibodeau oversees Phillips’ product merchandising for pet food, supplies, treats, aquatics and reptile, bird and small animal, and litter. She is based out of Phillips’ Charlotte, North Carolina, office.

Thibodeau received her MBA from the University of Virginia. She served in hands-on merchandising roles for more than eight years at Target and has IT and marketing experience. At Phillips, she combines her leadership and merchandising skills to enable retailers and manufacturers to delight the customer. Among her top initiatives is developing an intentional assortment: a collection of brands across categories that align with industry trends, represent different product lifecycle phases and fit the varying needs of a consumer’s budget.

“Delivering a compelling and relevant assortment that represents a collection of emerging brands, innovative products, niche categories and foundational brands with a history of strong consumer loyalty will help retailers meet the evolving needs of consumers in their local markets,” Thibodeau said. “To help local retailers deliver an exceptional customer experience and compete effectively, we identify brands that are growing, we evaluate brand positioning and we consider how a brand fits into consumer budget preferences.”

Advancing a data-driven organization—another of Thibodeau’s goals—is key to the success of her team’s assortment planning work.

“Data and analytics provide insight into many areas of our business, including product selection, sales targets and growth opportunities, but they also can help our vendor partners and our retail customers,” Thibodeau said. “For example, providing vendors with data on the performance of their products at the market level can offer valuable insight on how to accelerate what’s working or course correct on what’s not.

“While you might initially describe Phillips as being a distributor of pet food and supplies, we are far more than that,” Thibodeau added. “Phillips is an integral part of fostering the emotional connection between pets and their pet parents through the wide variety of brands and products we offer our retail customers. Independent retailers have the unique ability to create a personal connection to the consumer, and we are proud to enable local retailers and manufacturers to delight the consumer.”