Category Manager
Watford, England, United Kingdom
• Headed buying, purchasing & sellthrough from key product categories, including 60 brands & suppliers.• Managing a team of Buying Admin Assistants - from interviews, hiring, conducting probationary reviews & yearly appraisals, delegating responsibilities & setting team KPI’s.• Provided product & system training twice a year for BAA’s, Copywriters & Customer Service.• Maintained relationships & rapport with Sales Representatives ensuring leverage in procurement. • Utilising Google Sheets/PowerPoint to present a strategy pack on a seasonal basis for product ranging, volume drivers & loss leaders to Heads of Buying & Head of Merchandising. • Worked alongside Senior Merchandiser to curate ranges & place both forward & in-season orders.• Developed the Own Brand Product offering involving market analysis, supplier sourcing, product design, sample assessments, price negotiation, and commercial agreements. • Present sales reports on a weekly & monthly basis to heads of the B&M team, & stakeholders - highlighting areas of success, improvements at a brand level & units of poor performance. • Awarded Absolute Snow’s Epic Award in June 2023 for a Range Plan Document on Google Sheets to allow multiple teams to visualise product ranges, drop dates & marketing promotions.• Running the replenishment & ordering of stock through the use of email communication & brand B2B’s such as Elastic Suite, & Nuorder, while adapting for bespoke brand portals. • Data analysis, calculation & division of budgets between departments & brands for forward / pre-ordering.• Applied knowledge of Excel & Google Sheets to construct a Bulk Uploading System to streamline the approval of stock onto the website, implemented across the B&M team. • Represented company & scheduled attendance at trade shows such as ISPO, SLIDE & OTS.• Strived for further development & responsibility by completing Workplace First Aid, Firemarshal training and being a keyholder for the business.