Private Label Manager - South Moon Under : Job Details

Company Overview

Originating as a small surf shop in 1968, South Moon Under has evolved into a national fashion retailer. We are building a vibrant, diverse team of creative, friendly, skilled, and passionate people who want to work hard and win even harder. We value our employees, and we enable them to deliver their best work. If you want to work for a company where we drive for success every day, without compromising human connection, you've found your Team!

At South Moon Under, our mission is summed up in four words – love. create. drive. imagine. We love this team - We create and curate beautiful things - We drive to be our best and we inspire others to tap into their power - We imagine and execute on our visions every day. Our Team is filled with smart, skilled, dynamic, creative, and passionate employees who drive to be better every day. Our customers are our inspiration. We personally curate our products to make our customers look and feel good. When our customers walk into our stores, we aim to connect and spread the love.

General Summary

The Private Label Manager is responsible for building an exciting and balanced assortment that will meet or exceed sales and gross margin plans for our private label brands. The Private Label Manager will partner with planning to develop seasonal and monthly assortment strategies that will drive growth in sales and increase profitability. They will be passionate about the product and ensuring that we bring quality product to life for our Customer's unique needs, preferences, and lifestyles. They are expected to understand the market and develop private label merchandise that aligns with customer demographic and business trends. Looking for a team player with exceptional collaboration and relationship-building skills, a strong creative problem solver, and has great organizational skills focused on attention to detail and follow-through. In addition, this person will have high financial acumen and be fashion savvy to use both data analytics and fashion intuition to drive results. This individual is responsible for the successful development, execution, and communication of private label assortment strategies for their assigned departments and will manage direct reports.

Product Duties:

• Design and manage multiple private label brands that connect SMU's DNA to identified end user.
• Oversee private label brand's direction, seasonal concept, and integration to overall assortment across categories.
• Own creation and presentation of category content (mood boards, trim, fabric boards).
• Present as design lead at milestone meetings.
• Prepare samples for fit, including spec garments to determine spec compliance, visually checking the interior and exterior of the garment making sure fit direction, construction, and design intent were followed.
• Create and implement merchandise strategies that support financial plans.
• Shop the market and trade shows to understand what is happening in the market, seek new development partners, and source trend appropriate product as it relates to our target customers.
• Drive all aspects of the product life cycle; identifying style, negotiating cost, assigning retail, managing style changes and delivery with vendors.
• Manage SKU & style intensive businesses and manage location intensive assortments.

Financial Duties:

• Partner with planning on the development of annual, seasonal, monthly, and weekly financial plans.
• Achieve IMU, GM%, WOS, and sales goals for private label assortment.
• With support from planning, manage quantities and door strategies based upon historical data, current trend, and anticipated future events.
• Analyze weekly and monthly sales, inventory, and receipt plans to drive sales and minimize markdowns.
• Communicate a point-of-view on product supported by facts and data.
• Provide expert analysis on trends and recommendations to drive immediate assortment strategies.
• Intimately familiar all details of each categories' open-to-buys as it relates to private label; closely collaborates with planning weekly to ensure accuracy of incoming receipts, product IMU, and coming markdowns.

Leadership Duties:

• Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with internal and external sources.
• Work with cross functional team members to ensure that the original vision /intent for product is executed across marketing and visual merchandising initiatives.
• Collaborate with store teams to refine knowledge of customer needs and to ensure stores are informed on product attributes, highlights, and outfitting strategies to build outfits for SMU customers.
• Maintain an on-going development and mentorship of direct reports.

Job Required Knowledge, Skills and Education

• Bachelor's Degree with 3-5 years of relevant experience in buying/merchandising and private label design and production.
• Ability to understand customer demographic and to identify appropriate product that will appeal to the customer.
• Strong understanding of retail math and measures used in financial reporting.
• Analytic Skills: Ability to think objectively and interpret meaningful themes from quantitative and qualitative data.
• Financial and Business Acumen: Ability to evaluate financial and business indicators and translate data into actionable information to drive results.
• Problem Solving & Decision Quality: Able to use rigorous logic and methods to solve problems with effective solutions
• Relationship Management: Able to build constructive and effective relationships with a broad and diverse group of business partners, both internally & externally.
• Presentation Skills: Effective in a variety of presentation settings including one-on-one, small and large groups, and with peers and Executives
• Systems and Tools Acumen: Microsoft Excel, Proficiency in Microsoft Access, PowerPoint and Word. Must also have aptitude to learn other technical applications quickly.
• Coachability: Ability to embrace constructive feedback with an open mind. Willingness and eagerness to learn, question norms, and continuously improve.
• Risk Management: Anticipate risks and identifies contingency plans and processes to prevent disruptions when risks occur.

Workplace Location:

This individual must reside within commuting distance from our Annapolis, Maryland office.

Disclaimer:

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. South Moon Under maintains the right to modify all or part of any job description at its discretion to meet and or exceed the needs of the business.