Pepkor Speciality is a division of the larger South African retail group Pepkor, dedicated to launching and nurturing emerging, on-trend apparel and footwear brands. It provides these smaller businesses with the benefits of the group’s extensive infrastructure, resources, and economies of scale without compromising each brand’s unique identity. Pepkor Speciality aims to combine the strength of its diverse brands to achieve efficiencies in key areas such as the supply chain, IT, and financial systems. This strategy allows them to make expertly curated products accessible at inclusive price points, empowering customers to find products that reflect unique trends and identities.

Job Description

• An exciting opportunity has become available for a highly experienced senior Merchandise Planner in our Sneakers business. The Merchandise Planner is responsible for the delivery, implementation and management of the departmental business plans that support the merchandise strategy. Tekkie Town is looking for a self-confident, motivated, curious and resilient individual who can think laterally and who has strong analytical and proven numerical abilities.
• Our ideal candidate will need to have a successful track record in product and store planning to maintain and grow the above-mentioned portfolio in accordance with company strategy and market share objectives. A strong trader mentality is essential.

Qualifications

• A relevant Bachelor’s Degree / Diploma
• Minimum 3 to 5 years’ experience in product planning is essential, preference to brand related experience with branded products.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Experience working in planning systems such as Anaplan, JDA Allocations, Pyramid Allocations and reporting tools such as Qlikview and GCP are advantageous
• Experience in working at an advanced level in Excel or Google Sheets is essential.
• Practical knowledge of stock control and distribution to improve clearance and stock turn.
• Understanding of the retail merchandise cycle with regards to critical path, range planning and delivering a balanced assortment in stores.
• Strong skills in Google Suite including sheets (VLOOKUPs, pivot tables, advanced formulas) is an advantage.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex information clearly and concisely to diverse audiences.
• Attention to detail and accuracy in data analysis and reporting.
• Ability to demonstrate agility in a high paced environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Preparing and implementing merchandise business plans in support of the company strategy.
• Re-forecast seasonal sales based on previous performance to maximize profitability.
• Providing accurate and timeous merchandise information to minimize risk and optimise business opportunity.
• Preparing and delivering merchandise assortment plans.
• Range building in line with the departmental business plan.
• Post Seasonal Strategy – Analyse past seasons performance to determine proposed strategy.
• Managing Budgets – Ensure that all budgets are met as agreed in respect of sales, inflow margin, permanent and temporary price adjustments. Stock levels, stock turn and GMROII in accordance with seasonal strategy.
• Pre- Season Planning – Plan sales, markdowns, inflows and stock levels by category by week based on post- seasonal analysis. Trend info and comp shop SWOT analysis to roll up to the company strategic budget.
• Order/stock administration and control – Ensure orders are placed timeously and in line with agreed plan down to assortment criteria.
• Store planning – ability to align store plans with product plans and develop options plans and optimums to optimise inventory performance.
• Allocations – work closely with the Merchandise Allocators to execute strategic allocations to deliver store budgeted sales, gross profit and inventory productivity.
• Stock Management – Monitor that orders are placed timeously and in line with the agreed plan down to assortment criteria.
• Store stock management – Conduct regular store visits to keep in touch with store needs.
• Reviews – Prepare supporting information to be presented along with the product for review.
• Mentoring and leading teams.