Sarah Griffin

Ellaycom is a luxury omnichannel retailer, operating across E-commerce, Home shopping network and Mobile App platforms. Working within a start up environment alongside key internal and external stakeholders to deliver the category and overall business KPIs for the Home department.

Team leadership.
-Vendor management - initial on-boarding, negotiation of contracts, product line up.
-Business strategy and analysis.
-Price, stock, sell thru monitoring and implementation.
-Planning and range implementation
-Forecasting, budget, income and open to buy management.
-Building relationships across the wider business - planning, studio operations, content, visual merchandising and logistics.
-Market analysis.

A.F Blakemore own 51% of the Spar convenience share within the UK. This consists of 300 company owned and 700 independent stores. I managed the ‘Food to Go’, in store bakery and coffee categories across the company owned, independent and food service channels. Sales budget of £35m for 2016-17.
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-Delivery of the category & business strategy.
-Negotiation of key terms and commercials, with both existing and new suppliers.
-Forecasting & planning promotional or seasonal activity.
-Implementation of new product development.
-Budget & income management.
-Team leadership.
-Effective communication across all divisions of the business.

Achievements:
Increased Food to go sales by 8%, profit 15% year on year, additional income outside of cash profit by £1m.
Introduction of a limited edition programme across the categories delivered incremental sales of £700k YTD and margin of £280k.

Lloyds pharmacy were purchased 2 years ago by a company called McKesson, Mckesson are the largest pharmaceutical, health and beauty business within the United States. Lloyd’s pharmacy operates 1500 sites across the UK. Product range included Health & Beauty, Vitamins and Minerals, fragrance, over the counter medicines and Baby.

Managing a supply base which had a combined annual turnover of £155m. Negotiation of terms & pricing across the Top 22 suppliers, this included brands such as Unilever, Johnson and Johnson, GSK, Beiersdorf and Kimberly Clark. Working alongside wider business including the finance, wholesale, and procurement and retail divisions. I compiled and presented reports to the directors on a monthly basis.

Sainsbury's are the 2nd largest chain of supermarkets in the UK. They operate over 1300 sites across the UK, this is made up of 600 supermarkets and 700 convenience stores.

I worked on various categories across the general merchandise division. This included Sound and Vision, Stationery, Small Domestic Appliances, white goods, leisure and DIY. I managed the online, in store and convenience proposition for each category.

Delivering the category vision and business strategy by identifying short, medium and long term goals. Accountability for budget setting and management, reporting figures on a weekly and monthly basis. Effective cost and supplier management, range review analysis, competition shopping and benchmarking. Improving the online proposition ‘look and feel’ to be in line with our competitor set. Working alongside key stakeholders throughout the business to achieve sales growth through marketing, range planning, promotional activity and launching new product development affectively. Negotiatiation of commercial terms, identifying significant growth opportunities with new and existing suppliers. Liaising with the Hong Kong office on new product development & planning and attending buying trips to the Far East. Management of 3 junior members of the buying team.

The Shakespeare Birthplace trust has 6 gift shops at sites located across Stratford-upon-Avon. All bespoke to their location. My role was to ensure the visitor experience at each location was of high quality by providing a competitive and broad offer within our retail outlets. The range consisted of 1200 skus, this included toys, books, bespoke pewter and Wedgwood, stationery.

Sourcing locally produced & imported product to complement each site, stock management and forecasting, placing orders with each supplier weekly. I worked closely with the assistant buyer on range launches and marketing material. This included till space in store, £1 pickup lines and merchandising plans for seasonal activity. I engaged with the marketing team to plan the promotional calendar to ensure we were aligned on key dates throughout the year, e.g., Shakespeare’s birthday. I also visited similar sites to benchmark products and identify any trends within the sector & pricing structure.