Assistant Manager, Buying

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

This role supports the Franchise Business by driving and executing trading activities, including reviewing buys and collaborating closely with external franchise buyers and in-season trading teams. The focus is on delivering planned sales, optimizing margins, and ensuring effective stock management.

This includes:

• Implementing the country merchandising strategy in alignment with overall business objectives.
• Executing the end-to-end merchandising process to ensure seamless operations.
• Providing guidance on buying strategy and assortment planning for franchise stores.
• Delivering relevant insights and feedback to the Product/ Omni-Channel teams to support continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities:

• Drive initiatives and provide guidance on franchise store buying, leading the buy process with Franchise Partners to ensure optimal store performance and alignment with company standards.
• Develop product assortments based on share of business, considering store formats, product categories, store types, and gender mix for FRS.
• Support the implementation of key country strategic priorities across all FRS stores.
• Assist the Buying Manager in planning and executing buys in line with OTB across all franchise doors.
• Drive and achieve key benchmarks and KPIs, including productivity and sell-through performance.
• Support FRS partners by providing the right range recommendations per store, aligned with EM/SEA seasonal strategies to ensure an appropriate and effective buy.
• Ensure all orders for FRS are placed accurately and within the required timelines.
• Collaborate closely with external franchise buyers and In-Season Trading teams to ensure product grading and option plans align with space management guidelines for FRS.
• Manage in-season chase models (Best Seller, In-Season Creation, and Planned Responsiveness) to maintain optimal inventory levels for FRS.
• Adhere to the FRS store visit schedule to ensure sufficient time is spent in stores for performance review and execution follow-up.

Key Relationships:

• Internal: Franchise Team, Product Team/OMNI Channel, Brand Comms, VM, Finance
• External: Franchise Partners

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Competency

• Strong analytical mind set - details and numbers oriented
• Datamining & Presentation skills
• Business Acumen & problem-solving skills
• Category know how - products, ranges, market trends

• Planning & Organizing
• Manage Relationships and diversity

• Big picture thinking
• Process and system understanding
• Learning and self-development
• Collaboration & Influencing skills
• Ability to multitask

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications

• Professional Background/Experience:
  • Functional: Minimum 2 years in Retail Industry
  • Industry: Preferably in Sports & Fashion or FMCG Retail
  • Commercial or key account sales experience will have an added advantage for this role.
• Education:
  • Degree or Diploma in Fashion / Marketing / Retail Management

Microsoft Skills

• Excel: Advanced
• PowerPoint: Advanced
• Word: Advanced

Language Skills

• English: Advanced
• Local Language: Fluent