Category Manager - Retail

Strategic Objective:

- Establish the organization's Vision, Mission, goals, objectives

- Establish Company's Core values and sustain culture through "walk the talk " approach

- Establish Key success factors and business fundamentals

- Establishing processes

Merchandising Planning & Forecasting:

- Define overall ranging strategy ensuring that through effective range control process and price architecture, the product selected is in line with consumer trends and in line with sales and margins targets.

- Ensure margin mechanics operate such that the range and pricing architectures deliver the desired percentage and cash margins

- Ensure that the range changes include new product launches, clearance activity, overstocks and implementation of new range stock are executed with careful planning and liaison with stores, marketing, PR, suppliers and distribution ensuring that any information is distributed in a timely manner

- To work with Buyer to develop, plan and deliver a commercially focused range whilst driving profit and enhancing wellness brand position, irrespective of fluctuating trends

- Ensure that product and range performance is monitored taking the appropriate action to ensure the identification and agreement on action plans to deal with best and worse sellers in order to optimize performance

- Producing layout plans for stores. Planning budgets and presenting sales forecasts and figures for new ranges

- Effective reporting and analysis of sales statistics, produce sales projections and present spread sheets and graphs.

Supply management:

- Ensure that effective quality control becomes embedded in the buying and supply chain processes to

optimize product quality, legal compliance and terms of trade

- Develop effective communication mechanisms to ensure that new product development launches on time as planned and to agreed specifications

- Controlling stock levels based on the forecasts

- Work with the Area manager to ensure a mechanism is in place for managing quality problems with products in the marketplace

- Work closely with the ZEDC logistics teams to ensure that there is a joined up process between inbound and outbound stock movement

- Monitoring slow sellers, and taking action to reduce prices or set promotions as necessary.

Efficiently managing PL process and achieving target:

- Responsible for the management of assigned categories meeting/exceeding margin and sales plans

- Responsible for design, development and execution of new products in assigned categories for core and private label lines to include:

- Communicating with factories the product specifications of proposed new product.

- Monitoring, tracking and organizing of all approved proposed new product samples and collect costs.

- Complete P&L for all core items and communicate cost for private label product.

- Approve all Pre-production samples.

- Accurately complete item set up requirements and all related documents; communicate to procurement, quality department, marketing and sales

Trading & Reporting:

- Take responsibility for flexing trade between categories and managing mixes, optimizing sale and stock levels and intake phasing to an agreed plan, through effectives use of MIS, reports

- React to current sales and trends by managing current stock situations and repeating, cancelling or re-phasing where necessary or proposing promotional or markdown activity

- Effectively manage departmental KPI's ensuring markdown and buying in margin are controlled in order to maximize profit for the department

Store visits:

- Identify visit opportunities

- Prepare for visit, identify issues to raise, report findings and collate information to discuss with team

- Propose, implement and follow up on action following visit

Team Management:

- Motivate departmental team in order to develop their talent through effective management

- Regularly monitor and review levels of performance within own team and effectively manage appraisal and review process to deliver training, coaching and development needs

- Build effective relationships with team members across buying, design, tech, retail, marketing and VM

- Build relationships across peer group in order to drive performance

- Build relationships across the business with other functions to encourage constructive feedback and communications between departments