Job Description
I am delighted to be recruiting exclusively for a new role for our client who are an extremely successful large supplier of Ladies Men's and Childrenswear to several large high street retailers throughout the UK and Europe .Primark being their Largest account . My client owns several factories in Bangladesh and have an exciting new opportunity for a Head of merchandising and Production to support their rapid growth between their clients and Bangladesh Teams . To be considered for this role you must have held a similar senior level role working in a Bangladesh factory and experienced working with knitted Jersey, Leisure and Nightwear.
Key Responsibilities:
Provide leadership to the Merchandising and Production teams based in Bangladesh, working with the Senior Managers for each category to evolve team structures, and build robust scalable processes.
Identify opportunities to establish and share best practices across categories, driving speed, efficiency, and achieving economies of scale to drive lower costs.
In partnership with the Senior Managers in Bangladesh, build a high-performance culture, with a fast-paced environment, without sacrificing strong attention to detail, accurate and clear communication, and a culture of continuous improvement.
Work with UK and Netherlands based Category Managers, and Senior Merchandisers in Bangladesh to ensure Critical Paths are carefully managed, and well communicated to Buyers on a weekly basis, pre-empting issues or delays and raising them clearly with Buyers in a timely manner.
Oversee costing submissions, working with UK and NL Category Managers to understand targets/requirements, receiving initial costings from BD teams, and checking detailed Open Cost sheets to drive cost competitiveness vs competitors. Strategically identify opportunities to grow the business by reducing cost, working in partnership with local Merchandising and Production teams, Garment Technologists, and the Global Head of Fabric Development and Sourcing.
Strategically identify projects to grow the business by reducing sampling lead times, in partnership with local product development teams in Bangladesh and China, the Category Managers and Designers in UK and NL, and the Global Head of Fabric Development and Sourcing.
Strategically identify projects to grow the business by reducing production lead times and increase flexibility, for example through mill or factory partnerships, fabric re-sourcing or platforming etc, in partnership with local Production and Merchandising teams, the Category Managers in UK and NL, and the Global Head of Fabric Development and Sourcing.
Be the 'face of' merchandising and production for clients, communicating clearly and proactively in both regular day to day communications, and in problem resolution.
Work with Bangladesh merchandising, Production and QC teams to ensure we have robust QC and inspection processes in place, and audit to ensure these are being correctly followed. Proactively manage and resolve problems, including implementing 'root cause' fixes.
Ideal Candidate:
Experienced (10+ years) as a Senior Leader/Director in Merchandising/Production within suppliers to high street UK/Ireland high street retailers.
An in depth understanding of merchandising and production sufficient to instantly command respect from Senior Managers. Experience working with casual (jersey, leisure and casual woven) factories in Bangladesh is strongly preferred.
Experience working with Primark preferred.
A true leader: a self-starter able to work autonomously, who can think strategically to 'join the dots' across different teams, and to proactively 'look round corners' and identify and lead strategic initiatives to improve outcomes and grow the business.
Someone with a superpower in pricing, with a strong awareness of the prices needed to win business from value retailers in the UK and Ireland, and how to go about achieving those prices.
A fantastic communicator in both written and spoken English.
Experience of managing remotely preferred.
A shrewd political operator, able to interact with multiple internal and external stakeholders, including some who may initially resist interference.
Ability to work under pressure in a fast-paced business to meet key deadlines.
Strong organizational skills and a proactive approach to problem solving and a 'can do' attitude.
IT skills: MS office
