HEAD OF MERCHANDISING
Who We Are
We are Life Style Sports, Ireland's largest sports performance and sports fashion retail Brand. We're home to epic sales teams, awesome buyers, number crunchers, creatives and sports fans. Our award-winning, world class stores and omnichannel online presence deliver an unrivalled, premium customer experience, we go to market through our main concepts; Trainer Central, Faster Stronger, Boot Room, Women's Studio and Kids.
As a key Global, strategic partner for all major sports brands including Nike, adidas and Under Armour, we bring their products to life like no-one else.
Our Brand family is full of Social, Inspirational and Fearless people who are passionate about driving our ambitious plans for online-led future growth in Ireland, the UK and across Europe.
Role Summary:
The role of Life Style Sports Head of Merchandising is an excellent opportunity for an energetic individual to join a growing team in a fast paced and rewarding environment. As the Life Style Sports Head of Merchandising you will be responsible for driving profitable sales growth through effective financial planning, range architecture, and inventory management. The role leads the end-to-end merchandising strategy, ensuring the right product is in the right place, at the right time, and at the right price, while optimising stock investment and working capital.
You will develop strong relationships with our global brand partners and will support our Heads of Buying in defining and managing a forecasting model to support the achievement of partner terms annually.
Role Responsibilities:
Financial Planning
* Own and lead the annual and seasonal merchandising financial plans, including sales, margin, stock, intake, markdown and aligning cash flow targets.
* Develop and manage detailed
Open-to-Buy (OTB)
plans aligned to business strategy and trading conditions.
* Partner with our buying teams to determine future buying strategies based on detailed range analytics aligning back to the brand strategy.
* Set and manage KPIs including sales, gross margin, weeks of cover, sell-through, and markdown rates.
* Partner with Finance to ensure accurate forecasting, budgeting, and re-forecasting throughout the trading cycle.
* Analyse trading performance and proactively identify risks and opportunities, recommending corrective actions where required.
* Drive margin optimisation through pricing, promotions, and markdown strategies.
Inventory Management & Stock Optimisation
* Define and execute inventory strategies to maximise availability while minimising excess and aged stock.
* Lead demand forecasting and stock flow planning across channels (stores, online, wholesale if applicable) approving intake and cancellations to achieve company profitability targets.
* Control order book flow and future commitment in conjunction with business financial targets and aligning to brand partner commitments quarterly and monthly.
* Maintain robust inbound planning documents aligned to financial KPI's set by the Finance Director
* Oversee lifecycle management of stock from intake through to clearance.
* Reduce stock ageing and markdown exposure through management of price events and promotions, identifying areas of focus with the Heads of Buying and ensuring clear costings and commercial impact is considered and presented for sign off.
* Champion continuous improvement in inventory accuracy, processes, and systems.
Merchandising Strategy & Range Planning
* Set the merchandising strategy aligned to customer insight, brand positioning, and commercial objectives.
* Own category and range frameworks, including depth, breadth, and price architecture.
* Work closely with Buying and Product teams to ensure commercial viability of ranges.
* Balance innovation and newness with core and replenishment product performance.
Leadership & Stakeholder Management
* Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing merchandising team.
* Build strong cross-functional partnerships with Buying, Supply Chain, Finance, Retail Operations, and Digital teams.
* Provide clear direction, accountability, and performance management within the merchandising function.
* Influence senior leadership with data-driven insights and clear commercial recommendations.
* Working closely with the Finance Director on monitoring and reporting of KPI's such as sell through, weeks covers, markdown and forward commitments in accordance with benchmarks agreed by the CEO.
Systems, Process & Governance
* Ensure effective use of merchandising and planning systems (e.g. ERP, planning tools, BI platforms).
* Drive process discipline, governance, and best practice in forecasting, planning, and stock management.
* Owning the seasonal calendar and ensuring compliance with key deadlines and KPI's set by the Finance Director.
* Support business transformation initiatives, including new systems, channel expansion, or store growth.
Reporting and KPI Management
* Weekly Trade analysis to share insights on company and category performance to the Trade team.
* Looking at Ecom and store channels and working closing with the Head of Retail Ops and Head of Ecom to share insights and propose actions for improvement.
* Managing and reporting against key KPI's such as sell through, weeks cover and markdown.
* Working with a Data Analyst and BI team to drive commercial, cross-functional reporting and insight lead dashboards and reports.
People Management
* Build, coach & Support a team of Merchandisers and Assistant Merchandisers.
* Enable a high-performance culture and deliver effective succession & talent pipeline plans within the Merchandising Team.
* Develop and implement Best Standard Practices across all areas of the department to maximise process efficiency and compliance.
* Provide leadership and guidance through coaching, mentoring and feedback on the development of the team.
Other
* Retail visits to our stores regularly aligning data to support continued evolution and alignment to the Brand strategy and opportunities to drive sales.
* Work closely with the Head of Supply Chain on Brand Partner inbound performance and present a quarterly scorecard to monitor behaviours.
Behavioural Competencies:
* Great communicator, with the ability to build strong relationships across the brand.
* Outstanding ability to think creatively to identify and resolve challenges.
* Ability to work cross functionally across several teams, both internal and external to deliver results.
* Strong commercial awareness and ability to understand implications on the business of decisions taken.
* Strong analytical and reporting skills and attention to detail to be able to deliver the necessary KPI's and to drive actionable insights.
* Determined, focused and solutions oriented to drive continuous improvements in business processes across multiple functions.
* Highly organised with string attention to detail and can work to tight deadlines and under pressure.
Technical Criteria:
* Degree in Buying & merchandising or other relevant 3rd level qualification.
* A minimum of 8 years' experience in a Fashion or Sports Retail Omni-Channel Environment
* Proficiency with ERP systems (e.g., Microsoft D365) BI tools (e.g., Tableau) and Microsoft Office.
* Strong numeric, data/analytical, financial, and organisational skills.
* Experience in use of Microsoft Excel at an advanced level.