Retail Brand Manager
Ali Abdulwahab Al Mutawa
Total years of experience :13 years, 3 Months
Brands : Eastpak / Jansport /Coleman/ Campingaz/ Miir/ Snowpeak/Smith & Polaroid Sunglasses
Departments: - Backpacks, Camping, Sunglasses
• Managed the buying for all the brands with a budget of 2M KWD (800, 000 USD)
• Liaise with our global brand teams & e-tailing partners to develop best practices to maximize ROI for the company
• Contributes to development and executes strong, functionally aligned brand plan. Tracks and monitors the performance, and strategic alignment.
• Manage marketing budget. Coordinate with key stakeholders to ensure optimal spending,
• Manage setting up contracts, day-to-day interfaces, and key business activities of the portfolio.
• Work closely with the Marketing Manager to promote brands and analyzing the effects of any marketing campaigns on Increasing market share, revenue, and brand equity for the product lines
• Responsible for buying & liaising with the Wholesale Managers to direct sales teams and contribute to the growth and profitability of the company
• Periodic store visits to interact with the sales team and ensure proper product displays based on the visual merchandising guidelines.
HN Store Opening Setup:
•Assisted Merchandise Director in formulating the business plan by working out the Store Capacity levels using floor plans
•Calculated Minimum cost to fill of the store based on the architectural drawings and fixture measurement
•Forecasted Sales and Margin based on SWOT analysis, exclusivity, trends, supplier markups and similar sales patterns by other brands in the region
•Closely worked with IT to set up product hierarchies, color and size hierarchies
•Single Point of contact for all IT systems (oracle/KCC/AIMS) to load POs to generate ASN in a minimum timeframe of 1 month
•Validation of 350 + ASNs and ensuring accuracy of sales reports, and stock inventory reports on the system
•Liaised with Logistics on shipments and Goods receiving as well as allocation of goods to store
•Designing of content on HN tags with relevant product information printed.
Departments: Women RTW, Women Accessories, Men & Kids
Key Responsibilities:
Supplier Management:
Successful handling of concession-business and generating over KWD 4M annually
Direct point of contact to all suppliers, currently managing 20+ suppliers, 60+ brands
Handling of contracts and getting on board new suppliers to fill in challenging areas
Negotiation and discussions on various areas such as exclusivity, brands, commissions, shrinkage, payment terms, discount cards, termination clauses
Working closely with Legal to have the contract worded based on the agreed terms.
Liaising closely with Finance and IT to setup their accounts, activate the processing of the Electronic orders.
Liaising with suppliers on invoices payments, discounts, supplier returns.
Preparing reports such as YTD analysis reports, Sales comparison (LY versus TY), Category reports, Minimum Cost to fill reports, and other ad-hoc reports
Liaising with suppliers to implement product knowledge & brand trainings for the store
OTB Budget Planning & Sales forecasting
Managing and finalizing the open-to-buy (OTB) process as part of the business rhythm process, which includes analyzing historical and future trends, Year to date performance, Seasonal sell thru, Sales mix Vs Buy mix
Calculation of Minimum cost required to fill the floor to project minimum stock display requirements
Challenging the brand portfolio to bring in new brands that would elevate the department to drive the business
Allocating Budgets for new upcoming brands and minimum buy brands, and de-risking the business by reducing investment on non-performing brands/categories
Strategizing investment on performing categories/carryover lines that could elevate the sales & sell-throughs, thus throwing-in additional OTB to invest.
Stock Management & Analysis:
Regular Store-visits with buyers / merchandising team discussing on the sales performance of the departments, evaluate input from store operations, and assess current business trends.
Managing stock levels especially on core lines as per rate of sale and to have at least a minimum of 15 weeks’ cover
Identifying and analyze stocks where sales have not been shifted for more than 3 weeks
Monitoring sales on a daily level, so as to ensure that BP sales & margin targets are met, and to investigate on areas where performance has dropped.
Pricing Analysis & Markdown Management:
Accurately calculate the unique optimal initial price for each product that maximizes the return on investment in this product.
Requesting suppliers to provide suggested Retail prices that can be applied so as to be at par with the world market.
Strategize the markdown % based on the exclusivity of brands in the region.
Promote brand collaborations with designers to have an edge over competitors in terms of pricing and margins.
Markets Handled: KSA, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar (21 stores)
Inventory Management
•Ordering stocks based on stock availability
•Ordering of in- line Displayers and keeping track of the displayers for new collections and launches.
•Creating and Uploading the MIN, for all product lines, Tracking the delivery of all stocks
•Liaison with Supplier for the Registration of Active and Limited Product Lines in Kuwait & Jordan, and to provide documents and samples to the Government for Lab testing
•Assist in forecasting & pricing strategy - Logic, commerciality and within brand targets for Margin
•Produce graphical representation of reports such as Inventory Analysis, Product & Sales Analysis and the use of trend analysis, that indicates the potential problems and issues with product lines and service level changes that influence customers.
•Study of the Best Seller lines for the specific markets, and maintain a service level of 98%-100% in all stores.
•Monitor the sales of the collection for 6 weeks & the impact of collection to the business.
•Store Management
•Allocation of stocks to various stores in different countries based on best sellers that contribute to the business.
•New Store Opening: Calculating the total density as per the New Store Layout and the quantities required in the store for display as well as the ordering of collaterals and displayers for the stores.
•Finalizing dates and events for the new collection launches.
•Travel to different markets to understand the setbacks of the performance of the stores, and ensuring stores adhere to the Schematics-Visual Merchandising guidelines
•Store Refurbishment: Ensuring the stocks in stores are either transferred to another store, or packed and kept in the warehouse.
•Preparation for stocktaking. i.e. updation of STRs, testers, pick files and freezing the stock file Qty, and later physically counting the inventory and re-entering these figures into the Retail System to ensure correct figures.
•Addressing store issues (Eg: Reconciliation issues & updating of batch nos).
This company is involved in Project Management, Consultancy & Real Estate Development in free trade zones
Project Undertaken