Melanie Colonval

La Vie en Rose is a woman fashion brand, lingerie specialist and leader in Canada.
Apparel Group based in Dubai has the retail franchise for 4 countries.

Product category: sleepwear, lingerie, shapewear, swimwear, beachwear,
active wear, loungewear and accessories

Points of sales: 16 boutiques and 1 department store

Territory: UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman

Main business achievements
1. Sales: growth of 34% in 2015 vs 2014
2. GP: review of the franchise agreement and pricing strategy in order
to improve GP (gain 3 points in 5 months)
3. Brand development: opening of 2 new points of sales + 3 boutiques
on their way
4. Conversion: increase by 3 points by improving the talent within the
sales force on the floor

Duties:
 Strategy: Responsible for formulating the brand strategy
 Finance: Fully responsible for building and following the annual budget, P&L
and quarterly business review
 Product Management: Responsible for defining the product assortment per
point of sales, visual merchandising, price positioning in function of the
competition and OTB
 Marketing & PR: Responsible for defining the marketing (ATL & BTL), digital
media & PR strategy as well as their budget and plan
 Sales & Talent: Responsible for defining the sales targets per store as well as
supporting and coaching the store staff in order to help them achieve their
sales targets
 Logistics: Responsible for shipping and delivering the merchandise to the
stores
 HR: Responsible for identifying and developing great talent. Building strong
team, defining their goals and objectives and providing them the right support

For the Dubai office of a leading French lingerie company, in charge of a team of 8 employees and 22 salesladies.
Premium to Luxury Brands: Chantelle, Passionata and Chantal Thomass
Product category: lingerie, sleepwear, beachwear and some cosmetics, perfumes, accessories
Channels of distribution: mono-brand stores, multi-brand stores and departments stores
Territory: Egypt to India
Business Model: wholesale, retail and concession in dpt stores

Duties:
• Strategy: Responsible for formulating the company direction and strategy
• Finance: Responsible for establishing the annual budget, P&L and quarterly estimates
• Accounting: Responsible for supervising the accounts and their annual auditing
• Product Management: Responsible for defining the product assortment per key account, the price positioning in function of the competition and the sales forecasts
• Marketing & PR: Responsible for defining the marketing & PR strategy for the 3 brands as well as their budgets
• Sales: Responsible for defining the sales targets per customer and support the Sales Rep in order to help him achieve his sales targets
• Customers: Responsible for the Key Accounts management
• Customer Service: Responsible for the order process management and the follow-up of the after-sales services (returns, problems of quality, …)
• Logistics: Responsible for selecting the best shipping companies in order to deliver the customers the most efficiently as possible
• HR & Admin: Responsible for defining the HR & Admin procedures, recruiting the employees, doing the annual evaluation of the managers, proposing the salary increases and the employee promotions

Business Achievements
- Profit Growth - every year since 2009
- Turnover double digit Growth since 2012
- Subsidiary Opening in Dubai (July 2013)
- Concession Agreement negotiation for 18 points of sales - 3 clients - 5 countries
- Franchising Agreement negotiation to open 2 Passionata boutiques (Dubai 2009 & Doha 2013)

Clients in Middle East
- Debenhams, Middle East
- Galeries Lafayette, Dubai
- Bloomingdales, Dubai
- Harvey Nichols, Dubai
- Harvey Nichols, Kuwait
- House of Fraser, Abu Dhabi

Areas of Expertise
- 11 years experience in the Middle East
- Expertise in lingerie industry for wholesale & retail
- Strategic Planning
- Business Plan Development
- Sales & Marketing
- Project Management
- Cost Control
- People Management within a multi-cultural environment

KEY SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

• A robust and business-focused approach to running a company
• Ability to network and liaise with clients at every level
• Experience of operating within competitive and highly regulated markets
• Proven ability to identify new business opportunities (concession, retail and new multi-brand concept store for KSA and Kuwait)
• An enterprising and creative thinker with a commercial eye
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office Software including Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook

Providing advise to company at the level of the the strategy, organizations and operations for customers (sales, marketing and customer service). I did projects in CRM, branding, campaign management, customer segmentation...I participated to the development of a prototype for a call centre (peoplesoft software - vantive). I have knowledge of Epiphany and Siebel.
I have experience in financial services and insurance, fmcg and transportation

Providing advise to company at the level of the sales & marketing strategy, organizations and operations

Administering the investment funds