Michael Roth and his Advisors worked for Playtex in several important roles – in marketing, sales, sales management and in trade marketing. In his roles, he was responsible for turning around several brands through fact based planning. He was also responsible for delivering the division millions in new volume through a process that opened up the Warehouse Club channel for the company. Michael Roths results directly contributed millions of dollars in new and incremental to the company.
Playtex was a company trying to find growth in a very difficult operational environment. In a 5 year period, the company had changed management and ownership teams several times. Each time, the company took on new debt and had less free cash flow to invest in advertising, promotion and for new product development. In this environment, the company turned to Michael Roth to help bring growth to stagnant the stagnant brands of Playtex Gloves and Jhirmack Hair Care. The Glove brand had not seen year over year growth for over 10 years. Yet, an assessment showed that when a focus was placed on distribution and not continuity spending, growth could be generated. The fact based plan developed for the brand diverted funds from consumer focused loyalty coupons to trade focused distribution programs. The self funded plans helped the brand to achieve new distribution and growth for the first time in 10 years.
Similarly, the Playtex Hair Care franchises had been in decline for 4 years prior to Michael Roth taking the strategic helm for the franchises. A business assessment identified that the brands were in fact wasting money by not targeting the categories major business drivers of price points, display and best vehicle tie-ins. A plan was developed that linked together trade and consumer promotional events and incentives for the sales force to perform tactically and the brands realized their first sales and revenue increases in a four year period.