Head of Merchandising – Showrooms (Kitchens, Bathrooms, Storage & Bedrooms) Permanent Up to £90,000 + Bonus + Pension + BUPA + ShareSave + 6.6 weeks holiday + Hybrid Working (3 days per week in the office) Southampton, Store Support Office *** INTERVIEWS WILL BE CONDUCTED IN JANUARY 2025 *** We believe anyone can improve their home to make life better.
From our Southampton Store Support office (SSO), we equip our stores, our people, and our whole business with everything it takes to help our millions of customers create a home they'll love.
Join us as a Head of Merchandising and you'll be a big part of this.
Role Purpose: Are you passionate about retail and ready to lead a dynamic merchandising team?
B&Q is looking for a bold Head of Merchandising to lead our team and drive the success of our showrooms category.
Your remit will be to maximize sales, margin, and profit density of the full Showrooms assortment, while ensuring stock efficiency and gaining market share.
In this role, you will work closely with the Head of Buying for Showrooms and our Supply Chain teams to help lead our multi-layered trading strategy to create a long-term edge in the market for our Showrooms offering.
Key Responsibilities: Strategy Development: Lead the creation of a 3–5-year category strategy using market insights, data, and analytics.Trading Plans: Deliver and govern category/promotional trading plans with the Head of Buying, Channel Leads, and Trading team, leading a team responsible for management of category trading space, corporate nominations, and agile trading spaces to ensure activity meets targets & stock exit.Forecasting: Forecast for volume, sales, and margin for new and promotional lines, and refine our data processes to help improve our data & forecasting accuracy and capabilities.Budgeting: Collaborate on budget builds and reforecasts with the Head of Buying and Business Finance Partners.Performance Monitoring: Review and monitor category performance, making recommendations and taking action based on sales performance and trends.KPI Management: Manage key performance indicators (KPIs) like Sales, Gross Margin (£ and %), Net Margin improvement, Stock Efficiency, and Market Share.
Communicate P&L drivers to the team.Supply Chain Planning: Along with the Head of Supply, ensure a strategic supply chain plan is in place for the category.Stock health management: Develop initiatives to drive efficiency & stock reduction in discontinued/slow selling lines.Buy Volumes & Strategy: Agree on fixed buy volumes and sell-through strategy.New Range Validation: Sign off business cases and validate forecasts for new ranges, ensuring budget alignment.Required Skills & Experience: Merchandising Experience: Previous experience in merchandising and trading product ranges across multiple sales channels in a multi-layered, complex category.Team Leadership: Proven experience in leading, developing, and coaching commercial category teams (current team size 9 FTEs).Influencing & Cross Functional Collaboration: Ability to engage & influence key cross-functional stakeholders e.g.
retail operations, finance, marketing, supply chain, and logistics.Commercial Focus: Ability to understand complex financial insights and translate them into business deliverables.Strong Analytical Skills: Strong numerical and analytical skills with obsessive attention to detail.Performance Driving: Ability to use insights and knowledge to build an agile trading plan.Strategy Implementation: Proven track record in developing and implementing category strategies that drive sales and market share growth.Customer Insights: Strong understanding of customer insights and market trends and how to use these for competitive advantage.Market Knowledge: Knowledge of the home improvement market and preferably within Kitchens, Bedrooms & Bathrooms, or other multi-layered category experience.
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