Takara Siane

· Stock to budget management alongside OTB per month and per season

· Constant development of product for both our online sector as well as our brick-and-mortar stores which hold to different customers

· Weekly analysis of product to ensure success and identify poor sellers to promote

· Quickly turn on repeats if product is showing a strong sell through to meet demand

· Successful working within tight deadlines and fast-paced atmosphere.

· Builds and maintains vendor relationships and assists with marketing efforts to ensure the product assortment supports strategic initiatives and financial goals

· Resolve conflicts and negotiated mutually beneficial agreements between parties.

· Carry out QA when stock arrives in our DC to ensure quality is matched with what was ordered

· Conduct trend research, gather information from multiple sources and presented results.

· Create spreadsheets using Microsoft Excel for daily, weekly and monthly reporting.

Key responsibilities

• Make all buying and creative collection decisions for the accessories division whilst developing a seasonal option and range plan based on historical sales and analysis, trend, future opportunities and customer requirements.
• 90% of products are bought directly from Guess Europe, with the remaining 10% being developed
• My accessories portfolio consists of handbags, purses/wallets, swimwear, underwear and footwear
• I work along side our wholesale team to achieve wholesale budget for accessories department
• My total portfolio OTB contribution in the accessories business is 27% in the mainline group and 13% in the factory group

Key responsibilities:

• Currently the kidswear buyer as well as the accessories buyer for the Guess South Africa group
• Make all buying and creative collection decisions for the accessories division whilst developing a seasonal option and range plan based on historical sales and analysis, trend, future opportunities and customer requirements.
• Currently develop 60% of my range and buy 40% of the range directly from Guess Europe for kidswear
• Responsible for the range and budgets within both the mainline stores (in large shopping malls) as well as factory stores (stores within strip and discount malls – we buy whole rages for our factory store; they are not just for end of season products.) My position carries many roles and responsibilities, such as, range building, buying of assortments, trend analysis, managing OTB, analysis of sales, handling buys, controlling buy plans and unit drops, handle markdown assortments and array of other buyer functions
• Responsible for 33% of the total business’ OTB at a value of R65.7m p/a (across both kids and accessories)
• Kids mainline sits at 3% contribution to the mainline group
• Kids factory sits at 20% for the total factory group

Key responsibilities:

• Buyer for Guess Factory
• All buying and developing for kids, men’s and ladies apparel buys for this division
• At Guess, we buy and develop collections for our factory stores based on the Guess Los Angeles model
• Developed 60% of my range and bought 40% of the range directly from the USA
• My position involved many roles and responsibilities, such as range building and ensuring story building and flow across the men’s, kids and ladies in store concept and apparel stories, analysis of sales, handling buys, controlling buy plans and unit drops, handle markdown assortment and array of other buyer activities.
• Developed and implemented performance improvement strategies and plans to promote continuous improvement.
• Proved successful working within tight deadlines and fast-paced atmosphere.

In March of 2017 I was promoted from an assistant buyer to a clothing buyer

• Launched girl’s and boy’s kids wear for Rage
• Negotiated and developed entire seasonal ranges
• I was the planner/administrator for the department and handle the budget, PO (purchase order) and PI (purchase invoice) stages of all kids wear styles
• As of August 2018, I was promoted to be the buyer for both girls and boy’s wear for Rage
• I worked directly with suppliers in China and Bangladesh, I negotiated and procured all styling for the children’s wear, I ensured smooth delivery of the orders, handle fit corrections of garments, analysis of garment sales and why they were good/bad sellers and an array of other administrative duties
• My duties involves travel to China and Bangladesh for buying purposes during this time

• Assist head buyers of the shoe department with buying administrative duties
• Ensuring that suppliers met their delivery dates and that all shipping and container documentation was in order for the shipment to be successful
• Negotiation and style development
• Headed up store checks; this meant once the stock arrived in the stores, I would complete a store check analysis and have to ensure that the stock was up to order standard as per of bulk samples and place any claims if necessary.