Joe Schmitt
Joe Schmitt co-leads BRG’s Retail Performance Improvement practice. He is a result-driven business professional with over twenty years of domestic and international experience primarily focused on retail and consumer products businesses.
As a consultant and industry operator, he has led high-profile engagements that have delivered measurable financial impact through cost-structure efficiency, margin expansion, sourcing effectiveness, and working capital improvement. He is recognized by management teams, boards, and financial sponsors as an expert in leading complex cross-functional business transformations in high-urgency situations. He has worked across multiple retail and consumer goods verticals, including apparel/footwear, general merchandise, and grocery, in situations ranging from financially distressed to hyper-growth.
Mr. Schmitt brings the following core competencies in retail and consumer product performance improvement:
- Vertical expertise in apparel/footwear, general merchandise, and food/drug/mass/convenience businesses
- Cost-structure efficiency
- Product-margin expansion
- Revenue growth
- Organizational design
- Store operations
- Supply chain
- Working capital optimization
- Marketing effectiveness
- Digital/omnichannel/direct to customer (DTC)
- Procurement: direct and indirect
- Pre- and post-merger integration
Before joining BRG, Mr. Schmitt was a managing director at AlixPartners, where he spent more than twelve years in numerous leadership positions, most recently as the global leader of the Retail Private Equity practice. Prior to AlixPartners, he was with Kurt Salmon Associates and IBM Global Business Services.
Employment History
AlixPartners
Managing Director, 2020-2023
Director, 2015-2019
Vice President, 2011-2014
Education
Villanova University
BS, Computer Science, 2001
Areas of Expertise
Related Insights from Joe
- Publication
Tidings of Tight Wallets: BRG’s 2024 Holiday Outlook for Retailers
November 2024 - Publication
Avoiding Retail Bankruptcy As Economic Uncertainty Persists
August 30, 2024 - Publication
Avoiding Retail Bankruptcy: Overloaded with Debt, Retailers Must Focus on Cash Management and Cost Takeouts
Summer 2024