Kevin, Assistant Merchandiser – Footwear
How has your career at Blacks developed?
I started out working on Freespirit – the Boardwear side. Since then, I was promoted and moved to work for Millets and Blacks, in footwear. It’s a much bigger department, so there are lots of people to learn from – and plenty of chance to take responsibility early.
What does your role entail?
I support the Merchandiser above me, making sure everything runs smoothly in the category. Tasks include updating and predicting financials, as well as analysing sales, stock and product performance. We stock a really wide range of footwear. There are walking boots, cross training shoes, après ski boots, sandals, flip flops, aqua shoes (for going in the sea) and Wellingtons.
It’s always a peek time for Wellingtons when festival season comes round. We need to forecast exactly how many of our £9.99 green Wellingtons we need to buy based on last years sales, previous month sales, weather forecasts and so on. This kind of project is typical of my job – it’s about never running out of your bestsellers – whilst not tying up money with unsold stock – or missing out on the latest trend.
What’s your favourite project at the moment?
At the moment, we’re working on a brand new category – urban footwear. We’re running a trial in a few of our new concept stores to see how it does. We need to work out the best price, which stores it will sell in and where we put it in the stores. We have a very close relationship with the Area Managers, the stores and the people in the stores at Blacks.
We’re also building up a road running department – shoes for people running marathons and so on. The brands in this category – like Nike – are totally different from our trail running shoe brands so it’s adding even more variety to my role. We work closely with the Buyers to try and analyse what new lines might do well – and monitor them closely as they first appear in the stores.
What’s development like at BLG?
Development’s good here. I was introduced to range planning and product development really early on. Soon afterwards, I got my own small category to work on – which is a great way to learn on the job.
I’ve also recently been involved in the financial planning – which helps to make you much more commercially aware. Right now, we’re planning for the Spring/Summer 09 seasons. It’s all about predicting sales, stock planning and the preparation of budgets for each category, so the Buyers know exactly what spend they are working with.