Senior Buyer (PD Background) Hybrid (TGN5301) - Excellent Salary DOE

Location: Manchester

Type: Permanent

Industry: Licensed Products

Job Ref: TGN5301

A fantastic opportunity for an ambitious and experienced candidate to join a successful company working with some of the biggest licensed brands on the High Street.

The role is a Senior Buyer / Product Developer, reporting into the Head of PD, then to Director level and will evolve the function to be more aligned with buying.

Ideally you will be: -

• From a Textiles /Homewares or similar background, toy/home, apparel etc, experience in licensing is a bonus.
• Skilled in negotiating prices with factories, analysing data to inform decision making, whilst driving improved margins and great product
• Experienced in Product Development

3 days office based / flexible start and finish times / Some travel.

SUMMARY JOB DESCRIPTION:

Working across a wide range of product types and famous franchises and brands, your role will be to develop and deliver commercial product ranges. You must be creative, innovative, have a good eye for detail, and be able to negotiate the best prices with factories, taking into account customer requirements and production capabilities. Working within a commercial creative team, you must have experience of working with factories to develop the optimum commercial products and ranges.

The successful candidate will be up to date with current production capabilities and limitations for products, and have excellent communication skills, able to liaise with other key departments such as Sales, Creative and QA, in the UK and Europe, and with factory counterparts across China, Pakistan, India, Turkey and more. Ability to negotiate and work with factories on pricing is vital.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Creating, and delivering commercial, trend forward ranges (stocked and exclusive) that are competitive in today's market and innovative and compelling for consumers across the UK, European markets and USA.
• Analysing performance data to shape buying decisions and future range planning
• Bringing fresh ideas to the table, staying ahead of product and fabric trends
• Manage range plans.
• Negotiate pricing and terms for products, working with factories to get the best prices and MOQs, to meet commercial targets.
• Working closely with the Sales Account Managers and Designers to understand each retailer brief, to create and develop ranges and products fit for purpose.
• Create Product Spec documents for factories, and ensure all samples meet the required specs.
• Manage Critical Paths for all development to ensure on time delivery, working with licensors to approve strike-offs keeping to critical dates and milestones.
• Market research and comp shops, looking for new product and technique ideas to implement within our product and range development.
• Sourcing and onboarding new suppliers
• This is a cross functional role, the ability to build and to maintain effective professional relationships at all levels of the business is key.
• Key internal relationships include Design team, Merch team, QA team, and Sales team,
• Key External relationships include Factories and Licensors. Licensors are key to what we do, all product development requires their approval)
• Experience of price negotiation in a commercial environment
• Knowledge of Textiles and/or Homewares industry