Commercial Manager - Fashion
The Very Group, United Kingdom
Job Description
About us
We’re The Very Group, home to Very.co.uk, Littlewoods.com and a team of 4,000 super-talented people. I am currently looking for a Commercial Manager to join the Fashion team and be based in our Head Office in Speke, Liverpool. We very rarely recruit role at this level, so its a great opportunity!
We’re the UK’s largest integrated digital retailer and financial services provider, and we’ve been helping customers say yes when it matters most for over 100 years. In that time, we’ve consistently reinvented our business to adapt to economic conditions and industry changes going from bricks, to clicks, to mobile.
But despite our passion for reinvention, we’ve never wavered from our purpose; to make good things easily accessible to more people. It means giving our customers the brands they love, an outstanding shopping experience and flexible ways to spread the cost.
We’ve continued to deliver for our customers throughout the Covid-19 outbreak and we’ve done it by transforming the way we work.
We’re fired up for the future and the next stage in our development. We’ll give customers access to more great brands for themselves and their families, a seamless shopping experience and even more control of their finances through innovation in flexible ways to pay.
Ready to reinvent? Get in touch.
About the role
We are looking for a strong Commercial Manager to join the Fashion team to help shape our 3-5 year fashion plan. You will provide support to the Senior Managers in the commercial delivery of the department resulting in improved efficiencies, maximising sales potential, obsessing about stock health and margin gain, whilst having total accountability for the category Pamp;L. You will report directly into the Merchandising Controller and have a team of 3 direct reports.
This is a new role and is highly dependent on cross functional working to drive data and insight followed with influencing and challenging the Fashion team to drive the most profitable results for the department.
Key Responsibilities
- Create data driven insight working closely with Commercial Finance and Data Intelligence to drive sales, profit and cash maximising decisions
- Influence and offer challenge to the teams, category managers and FSPs to drive profitable outcomes
- Deliver control mechanisms on stock health, availability, markdown and rebates providing challenge when necessary and proposing actions to improve
- Lead planning process, assisting the Head of to shape budgets and assortment size, owning category and departmental roll ups also challenging teams on sales and stock phasing budgets. Ensure plans are robust within strategic ambitions and share plans with Finance
- Support trading decisions driven by performance insight, scenario planning, promo planning amp; departmental forecasts
- Own category and brand roll ups across the department
- Provide commercial performance insight amp; commercial modelling to support category managers, producing and sharing daily reporting on Category performance, provide the weekly forecast view and propose actions to address
- *Create challenge and governance of stock holding plans, managing stock aligned to department and brand plans and business stock plans. Support FSP in WSSI planning and forecasting, maximising OTB utilisation across department.
- Track, report and unlock opportunities to drive brand and supplier profitability. Create and share supplier commercial insight with Category Managers to drive supplier performance.
- Support Merchandising Controller and Fashion Director in creating Bold Brand plans, creation and progress reporting.
Requirements
Essential knowledge, skills, role specific qualifications:
- 3 years+ product lifecyle experience in a multiple retail//Multi Channel business with significant online presence
- Minimum of 18 months management experience with large teams
- Commercial Acumen
- Strategic thinker
- Solutions and delivery focused
- Creative, passionate and innovative
- Ability to work under pressure and in a fast paced environment
- Champions what is right for the business, team and customer
- Leads and engages a high performing team
- Strong negotiation and influencing skills
- Strong organisational and communication skills
- Excellent interpersonal skills
Benefits
- 6500 benefits allowance (some can be taken as a salary uplift)
- 30 days holiday + bank holidays + option to buy or sell 5
- A flexible working culture
- Mental health awareness training programme
- Onsite gym with over 25 classes
- Up to 25% staff across the categories
- He