First Friday is a retail consultancy, specialised in B&M training and change management.Areas covered: buying and merchandising transformation programmes, process improvement for systems implementation and learning & development.My role consists of providing consultancy solutions and training to high street retailers and international brands across their systems, processes for forecasting, PLM, pricing, promotions, etc. - Implementing new skills, ways of working, sustainable adoptions of new processes and systems across multiple functions (B&M, finance, supply chain, etc.) - L&D training needs: design, development and delivery of interactive training sessions and support materials (workbooks, quick reference guides and user guides) targeted at a wide variety of roles and levels of responsibility up to executive level - Delivering coaching and training sessions to address functional learning (B&M best practices, understanding retail basics) and systems knowledge (RMS, PLM, WSSI) - Building relationships with senior management and working as part of a Project Management team with tight deadlines- Demonstrating solid presentation and communications skills, confidence as a subject matter specialist in buying and merchandising processes and best practices- Resource management to achieve milestones and project outcomes

Worked in the Childrenswear division.Accountable for managing Schoolwear (160 options per season, annual turnover £14m) as well as supporting the Senior Merchandiser in Nightwear and Essentials (350 options per season, annual turnover £12.5m) and becoming the interim Merchandiser for Babywear from January (330 options per season, annual turnover £8m). Frequently deputised for Senior Merchandiser, managing a team of 6 (AMs & MAs).- Range Planning: Working alongside the Senior Buyer to define and plan the ideal range for the target market using conclusions from Lessons Learnt, consumer and product knowledge and experience. Deciding on sourcing strategy, buy quantities, NPD, options, grading, price point policy, pricing, promotions, clearance markdown, etc. - Forecast & budgeting: set up financial plans, manage WSSI and OTB in-season for various cost centres. Reforecast KPIs and drive monthly BTA meetings with Trading Directors- Trade: weekly reporting, presenting performance, identifying trends and recommending appropriate actions in Monday Trade to Trading Directors. Leading the department's Monday meeting, organising and delegating actions - Critical path and stock management: responsible for product life cycle, placing orders with factories and suppliers, managing the intake schedule with Supply Chain- Working closely with Marketing and E-commerce to maximise online trading activity. Schoolwear online sales mix: 30%- Managing promotional activity and clearance stocks. Ensuring stock build at peak trading periods and during key events - Improving working practices: Excel WSSI for online channel, intake tracker to monitor deliveries and reporting for multi-channel availability, forecast accuracy- Overseeing PO process and initial allocation of stock is appropriate and in line with NPD launch and seasonal campaigns- Regularly analysing performance by channel, identifying risks and opportunities and making strategic recommendations to improve performance

Worked in the Home and Travel division.Started as Merchandise Assistant and progressed to Junior Merchandiser in less than 2 years. Gained experience across different departments: Gifts (460 options, season turnover £3m), Bedding (350 options, season turnover £6.5m), Furniture (150 options, season turnover £16m), Baby Entertainment & Highchairs (100 options, season turnover £10.5m), Nursery (450 options, season turnover £32m), Pushchairs (300 options, season turnover £30m, 20% company sales mix). Managed a team of AMs, MAs and Allocators. After one year in the company, volunteered to mentor and coach MAs for 5 departments. - Responsible for the department KPIs and WSSI as well as planning, forecasting and trading the ranges for all channels (International, Online, UK stores, Wholesale). Planned and placed orders for core and new lines for own brand and branded products; managed seasonal launch and stock replenishment; proposed and agreed price architecture in line with strategy; and proposed promotional and terminal stock actions - Grew e-commerce in line with business targets: achieving 30-35% sales mix- Owned WSSI, in-season trading/OTB forecasts for the whole department reporting to Senior Merchandiser/Head of merchandising- Demonstrated clear understanding of customer profile, awareness of competitor activity and identified risks and opportunities. Used market research data from GFK and NPD. Extrapolated the in-and end-season/phase lessons learnt. Prepared and presented strategy, range sign offs, weekly department performance to B&M Directors- Focused on delivering the key launch and availability metrics set and agreed with the business for each channel, focusing on critical path management with the Buying team - Accountable for managing a department after 2 years in the company. Drove changes to ways of working: Excel WSSI, report by collection, best & worst, NPD performance tracking, weekly meeting with the Sourcing office

Responsible for the back office of a busy wholesale and Marketing department. Acted as main point of contact for wholesale stores, consumers, managers and sales agents regarding enquiries of brand/products, shipments, samples, translations, etc. Managed stock returns, stock swaps, shortages, repairs and spare parts.- Effectively managed a team of 9 sales agents- Supported the Country Manager in planning and executing the commercial strategy (budgets, sales/stock forecast, pre-season campaigns). Analysed competitors’ marketing, selection and pricing and made strategic changes as needed- Prepared category and product performance reports and dashboards (sell through, sell out, range mix) using Excel and Cognos. Identified profit growth opportunities for the categories- Conducted regular meetings with wholesale customers to present ranges and achieve business goals. Planned marketing programs and promotions - Supported the Marketing Manager with event management, product placement, copywriting and POS. Assisted the Visual Merchandiser with visual merchandising guidelines- Responsible for maintaining the showroom in Barcelona and the management of the product samples for sales agents and 2 showrooms- Coordinated the replenishment and planning the range for the major key account in Spain (El Corte Ingles): prepared assortment lists, final range selection, analysis of pre-season and in-season sales, collation of product catalogues- Significant contribution to various projects: Sales order entry system management, sponsorship events, window-store plans, open days to the press, product launch support, press/online coverage campaigns- Maximisation and strengthening of relationships with key retailers (image stores, volume accounts) helping to reach a €5 million revenue in 2010 and €2 million revenue in the first 2 quarters of 2011

Progressed to managing own area and team after 2 years. Led the wholesale and concessions support team for Spain and Portugal for the ‘Eastpak’ and ‘Kipling’ brands and also responsible for the operational support and stock replenishment of key account customers (e.g. El Corte Ingles, worldwide duty-free group Aldeasa). Managed 3 direct reports.- Managed a customer base account of 300+ stores for ‘Eastpak’ and 200+ stores for ‘Kipling’. Supported the implementation of first concessions for the ‘Kipling’ brand and post roll-out- Collected and analysed quantitative and qualitative data from wholesale and concessions accounts and translated the insights into a seasonal plan. Solid knowledge of the customer, market and products (NPD, continuity and special editions)- Owned order book and financial KPIs: volume, revenue, and margin for dedicated product categories- Monitored categories performance in-season: sell-in & sell-out. Presented weekly reporting and analysis- Reviewed space and range allocation seasonally and influenced changes - Processed POs in AS/400 and sent notifications to customers through EDI. Managed pricing- Provided outstanding service to all wholesale accounts - Stock management: allocations, new product launches, out of stock queries, stock deliveries, replenishment, returns. Liaised with DC to solve issues and to coordinate effective stock distribution- Contributed to the implementation of a sales reporting system to manage retail data for El Corte Ingles- Responsible for coaching team members and involved in the training of new starters. Participated in relevant recruitment and appraisal procedures- Key projects: helped to implement a new improved delivery system using DHL service and digital signatures for El Corte Ingles via EDI to achieve improved data traceability

Apple Languages is a language travel agency, selling language courses to clients from all over the world. - Assisted the sales team with email and telephone enquiries. Supported with administrative work associated with sales and marketing- Applied SEO/SEM techniques to enhance visibility and achieved to maintain the sites in the top-10 searches in leading search engines- Contributed to the marketing of courses during the media and advertising campaign planning meetings- Translated, adapted and updated a variety of digital and print content into Spanish: web pages, product guides and overviews, catalogues, newsletters, marketing materials, etc. Project examples: http://applelanguages.es/ or http://caminobarcelona.es/ - Ensured localised web content is correctly implemented on the site. Created more than 50 post and links in different blogs and sites- Worked closely with the Web development team and Marketing Manager- Systems used: MS Office (mainly Excel and Access), Content Management System (CMS), Adobe Dreamweaver, Google Analytics

- Processed applications and data entry. Used MS Office and internal databases- Scrutinised passports and other documents before sending applications to Case Officers- Scanned and uploaded documentation into the system- Performed general administration duties

123 Print offers a range of personalised gifts and merchandise that can be customised for personal or business purposes. Some of the products include printed business cards, magnets, flyers, pens, wedding invitations, 'thank you' cards.- Managed B2B customer accounts: Up-selling, providing recommendations on products, order processing, resolving customer issues, providing excellent customer service, identifying opportunities to expand the business. Used MS Office (advanced user of Excel) and JDA AS/400- Supported the sales director managing top line forecasts for regional areas- Provided information and costings- Liaised with internal departments, mainly marketing and credit control- Achieved the ‘Certificate of Excellence’ for exceeding targets- Demonstrated strong customer focus leading to the promotion of long-term customer relationships as well as the maximisation of sales opportunities

- Assisted the planning and operational analysis of the company's subsidiaries and its power generation park (over 400 groups)- Queried databases to gather information to provide analysis and recommendations to improve efficiency and business performance and to support teams across the business to understand the rapidly changing energy retail market- Conducted pricing analysis, competitor pricing & product analysis- Developed strong understanding of the energy retail market, competitors' strategies and customers' needs- Developed and implemented market research activities to study relevant trends across historical customers, competitors, prospective customers and price positioning- Achieved solid knowledge of MS Excel (macros, pivot tables, functions) and systems (Siebel CRM)- Coordinated the professional development of less experienced personnel

- Conducted market research activities to support business development, understanding customers' requirements, developing ideas / solutions- Developed strong relationships with people of all levels and across multiple departments- Prepared market analysis outputs such as SWOT analysis- Queried and analysed data to be compiled into written reports for senior management (MS Office, mainly Excel and Word and EPoS reporting system)- Supported senior management on ad hoc administrative and analysis tasks- Introduced a task manual for future trainees