My client is looking to recruit an Assistant Buyer to join their growing business and team.
The Assistant Buyer will support the Product Development team in the creation and launch of new products. This role involves coordinating various stages of product development, from concept to production, ensuring that projects are completed on time and meet quality standards. The ideal candidate will be detail-oriented, organised, and capable of managing multiple tasks simultaneously in a fast-paced environment.
Main Responsibilities
Duties & execution
Seasonal kick offs
- Assist the product specialist in looking for the latest trends
- Assist the product specialist in preparing comp shop reports
- Assist the product specialist in preparing presentations using Canva
Range building
- Working with the product specialist to conduct in depth market research, identifying market requirements / gaps along with trends and customer preferences.
- Responsible keeping range plans up to date with all relevant information
- Responsible for keeping costing sheets up to date
- Responsible for keeping product decks up to date working with design to keep these fresh.
- Responsible for sample management keeping a clear log of samples by vendor and stage
- Collaborating with internal teams to develop products fit for market
- Collaborating with suppliers to ensure all costs and product information is up to date
- Completion of specification sheets detailing every component of a product to ensure products are in line or ahead of the competition and bought to material costs.
Product sourcing / supplier management
- Establishing and maintaining good relationships with existing and potential new suppliers.
- Completion of new factory profile forms and ensuring all new factories are approved by QA.
- Responsible for samples across all lines negotiating samples with factories minimising costs to the business.
- Regular video calls to maintain and strengthen supplier relationships.
- Sourcing of new trends, hot products.
- Creating product briefs for suppliers and factories, working with design and QA to ensure we are up to date with standards for products and factories.
Critical path management
- Assist on the product Development Critical Path Management. Ensuring product critical paths and weekly workloads are on track to achieve deadlines from concept to pre-production with design and factories.
- Ensuring deadlines are adhered to and follow up on all sample issues to resolve and drive to completion.
- Monitoring order Critical Path with Merch to ensure intake dates are met.
- Continuously chasing artwork, samples, testing to ensure CP dates are met.
- Responsible for delivering samples on time, to the quality standard, and within cost price range, to achieve target margin.
- Flagging issues at all stages and communicating to mitigate issues and delays.
- Liaising with our internal license dept and external license teams to push approvals.
Showroom / PD room management
- Overall responsibility for your areas in the showroom / pd room.
- Ensuring all mocks up / samples are presented in the best form for seasonal launches working cross collab with internal teams.
- Ensuring the product bays are always kept in full with no missing samples managing internal teams with additional sample requests if applicable.
- Ensuring costing sheets are always up to date and match all specification of products on show in the showroom.
- Identifying new ways of presenting products and suggesting changes that may be required.
- Ownership of sample management, implementing and leading new sampling procedure for both office and PD room.
Only relevant candidates will be contacted