SUMMARY:
Luxury Label Brand Manager - Sandton

POSITION INFO:

The Brand Manager is accountable for the product, the trade and the profitable growth of the Luxury label in South Africa, across all four houses and every channel the brand trades in: the mono-brand stores, the other multi-brand doors, and e-commerce.

Product sits at the centre of this role. The Brand Manager buys the seasons, builds the range and edits each collection for the South African customer, and owns the open-to-buy, the pricing and the stock that follow from it. The role also holds the relationship with the brand principal and the commercial result. It reports to the Head of Brand Operations and leads an Operations Manager and an Brand Assistant. Every  store reports into the Operations Manager, who reports into this role: store execution sits with the Operations Manager, while overall accountability for how every door performs stays with the Brand Manager.

2.  Key Responsibilities

1.  Product, buying and range curation.  Buys the season for every house and every channel. Attends the market appointments in Italy[1], selects the range, and edits each collection for the South African customer, climate and price point, by house, by door and by channel. Builds the category, size and colour mix, sets option counts, and decides what carries over, what repeats and what is dropped. Manages repeat orders, in-season replenishment and the season roll, and presents the buy to the Head of Brand Operations for sign-off.

2.  Open-to-buy and intake.  Holds the open-to-buy by house, channel and season. Works with Planning and Finance on intake phasing and stock investment against the sales and margin plan, and keeps the buy inside the approved framework.

3.  Pricing, costing and price architecture.  Sets retail pricing and signs off costings: landed cost and duty inputs, the price ladder across the four houses, seasonal price lists, and the promotional and markdown calendar.

4.  Stock ownership and allocation.  Accountable for stock health across the estate. Works with the Brand Assistant  on allocation, replenishment, inter-store transfers, ageing and carryover, clearance and outlet exit, and stock movement between the houses, the multi-brand doors and e-commerce.

5.  The brand and the principal relationship.  Runs the day-to-day relationship with the brand principal and its divisions: the brand plan, the seasonal calendar, franchise and licence obligations, minimum purchase commitments, corporate identity and store concept, campaign and VM approvals, and reporting into global.

6.  Data, analytics and forecasting.  Uses sales, stock and customer data to drive every buying, pricing, allocation and markdown decision. Builds the forecasts and projections, sets data-led targets, and tracks sell-through, rate of sale, stock cover and sales density.

7.  Overall store performance.  Holds overall accountability for how every Armani door trades and for the profitable growth of the brand. The stores report to the Operations Manager, who runs day-to-day execution, but the result belongs to this role. Drives the KPI set through the Operations Manager: sales, gross margin, conversion, UPT, ATV, sell-through, sales per square metre, wages, shrinkage and cash variance, makes sure every store delivers the Group service standard to brand level, and reports on time in line with Group controls and the principal’s standards.

8.  Multi-brand and e-commerce oversight.  Oversees how Label is bought, allocated, priced and presented inside  multi-brand doors, and makes sure those teams have the space, product and training they need. Oversees e-commerce trading for the brand: online range curation, asset flow from the principal, replenishment of best sellers, launch and clearance phasing, and full price versus sale.

9.  Marketing, activation and in-market plans.  Builds and delivers the in-market plan with Marketing: launches, campaigns, activations, gift-with-purchase and clienteling. Owns the brand marketing budget and the principal’s co-operative marketing obligation, commits and tracks the spend against that obligation, and reports spend and results back to the principal and to Group.

10.  Team leadership and development.  Leads, mentors and develops the Operations Manager and the Brand Assistant, with clear objectives, development plans, regular feedback and formal reviews

Email cv to a