z-hop@hotmail.co.uk

25 Cyril Street,

Northampton, NN1 5EJ

07544 460800

OVERVIEW

I currently work for the largest chain of UK action sports stores in the UK as the ladies causal wear buyer. I was promoted to this position after managing a high street store for 5 years. I’m now looking to apply my 8 years retail experience to a new role for a similar retailer to help them develop their range, using my experience of developing SMU’s and fast to market products.

ExpERIEncE

GSM Retail England Retail - Northampton

Ladies wear Buyer June 2009 – Current

The majority of my role is for the retail brand Two Seasons, however I also do a considerable amount of work for Billabong & Element stores.

Using my 5 years shop floor experience I select, allocate & merchandise all ladies & boys wear products along with jewellery for the 35 stores. This entails working with up to 30 brands per buying season to select the products I know will generate the most profit for the company. Key to my role is making sure we get the best deals from suppliers and in season merchandising of stock to maximize sales.

Several of our suppliers are based in Europe and I often spend up to 8 weeks of the year out of the country helping brands such as Billabong & Element develop products for the UK market. My work on SMU and Fast to market products ensures UK customer’s expectations are met.

With significantly increased sales through our website, I make sure that our product selection makes the most of the long tail buying pattern we see online, which has been key to increasing conversion on our no.1 store.

I also make regular store visits to train staff on visual merchandising to ensure ladies and men’s product is presented to the highest standard.

KEy SKIllS

★ Buying to budget

★ Advanced Excel

★ Product development

★ Visual Merchandising

★ Analysing stock performance

★ Outfit planning for customer style guides

★ Identifying market trends

ExpERIEncE cOnTInUED

TWO SEASONS | Northampton Store Manager/ Company Visual Merchandiser July 2004 – June 2009

Before Two Seasons was bought by GSM I ran a predominately casual clothing store selling brands like Animal, Billabong, Roxy, Element, DC & Quiksilver. I was responsible for sales and controlling variable costs.

This role included recruiting, training and managing a team of 10 and visually merchandising the store to help increase footfall and conversion. Due to my success in visual merchandising I was promoted to applying this to other stores in the chain.

During this time at Two Seasons several new stores were setup and I was part of the core team that planned and executed new store openings.

Bon Marché | Bedford Assistant Manager September 2003 – June 2004

While working in this £2 million turnover store I was responsible for 12 staff to make sure targets were hit and daily duties were carried out. The store was very promotion driven so I had to ensure all promotions were displayed to increase conversion and making sure as many customers signed up to the loyalty schemes as possible.

EDUcaTIOn

Kent Institute of Art & Design (Now UCA, University for Creative Arts)

2000 - 2003 (BA HONs) Fine Art

This was a creative degree that was predominantly practical based, although research techniques, seminar presentations & art theory were essentials.

OUTSIDE OF WORK

★ Creating button related art

★ Visiting galleries

★ Scuba diving

★ Snowboarding

References are availible on request.

★ Surfing

★ Wakeboarding (Badly)

★ Socialising with Friends