Rizwan Siddique

Being Category Manager my role is to maximize the Profitability of Category by maximizing sales, gross profit, inventory turnover and minimizing markdowns by extensive market-product analysis, identifying and creating opportunities to boost sales and profitability.
To maximize profitability I am responsible to prepare annual sales budget, Develop assortment plans by Category/Sub-Cat/ Brand/Range/SKU at National/Cluster/District/Store level to achieve Sales, Inventory Turnover and Gross margin targets on monthly, quarterly, seasonal and annual basis. Develop pre-season and manage in-season sales-stock, Gross Margins and Markdowns plans, consistently and extensively analyse current trends, competitors’ offerings and consumer buying patterns to put effective response. Maintain strong liaison with Product Development, Sourcing, Marketing, Replenishment, logistics and Retail Operations to ensure smooth execution of plans in order to achieve set targets. Consolidating and presenting Department’s complete reporting to Chief Merchant and representing/Leading department for operational, tactical and system application activities.
Has worked in System applications like Oracle Retail and Category Management System.

In this role I was assisting Category Manager of Product categories generating about Rs. 4 billion annual sales from Pakistan’s most selling shoe brands, Don-Carlos, Cheetah, and Calza & Servis. Individually I was responsible of managing & developing merchandise assortment plans of Portfolio of 200 SKUs approximately Worth Rs. 900 million annual sales which included brand “Cheetah” primarily. Executed sales, stock and allocation-replenishment plans and built cluster profiles at SKU-Store Level with diligent focus on Key item strategies. Communicated all activity plans with all cross functional teams.

Major Responsibilities of this role was to analyze merchandise performance & Consumer buying patterns to predict risks and opportunities through extensive data analysis and market visits. Prepared and processed purchase orders and conducted daily production and dispatch follow ups. Planned and executed plans by item/store and date.

Started Professional Career as Sourcing Analyst where I was responsible of building production budgets for each Vendor, analyzing vendor capacity against forecast and managing risks, carrying capacity share negotiations and identifying need of capacity building. Executed order placements and had day to day production follow-ups, prioritize production runs to meet drastic demand shifts. Ensured product quality compliance from production to distribution center. Presented monthly performance review based on vendor performance card and made extensive standard and ad hoc analysis as needed.