Director of Buying + Planning

Industry:

Company: M.M. LaFleur

About our company.

M.M.LaFleur is a female-founded womenswear company based in New York City. We believe the world is a better place when women succeed. Our goal is to take the work out of dressing for work-whether that means heading to the office, networking over brunch, leading PTA meetings, or anything in between. Our thoughtfully designed pieces are practical, comfortable, and beautiful, and we hope that when you wear them, you feel like the most polished and powerful version of yourself.

Who are we?

We’re a group of go-getters who are passionate about reimagining the way women shop and dress for work. We get inspiration from our customers, and everything we design has a purpose and a human touch. We think big, but we sweat the details, and we take our work (but never ourselves) seriously. We’re steady but nimble, thanks to a whip-smart, energetic team that’s not afraid to be scrappy. We are perfectionists who sometimes spill on our clothes-we own our mistakes, turn challenges into growth, and evolve as we learn. We embrace ambiguity, celebrate weird ideas, and love a work in progress. We are kind but direct, and we practice Kizukai-a Japanese word that means “empathy in action.” We are incredibly proud of the team we’ve built, and we’re excited to continue evolving as we grow.

About this role.

The Director of Buying + Planning will drive inventory management and product planning strategies to achieve sales goals and gross margin benchmarks. This person will lead all financial product planning functionality including core product replenishment, in-store product allocation, Open-To-Buy and sales forecasting, trend forecasting, inventory management and markdown cadence. It is a critical role that oversees the investment spend and holds control over inventory required for the company to achieve sales growth, productivity targets and increased profitability. This person works closely with Channel Revenue owners and Merchandising on ensuring the right core and collection mix, Product Development to drive the commercial needs of the business as well as Production to ensure timely replenishment and fabric ownership.

This includes but not exclusive to:

• Drive the buying process: identify optimal SKU count, buy quantities and contribution of each category to total business; able to balance the needs of brand-elevating / fashion styles vs volume-driving / core styles
• Own reporting & departmental analytics: provide actionable insights & identify business opportunities
• Drive efficient processes: Identify structural opportunities and implement new processes for robust business management
• Represent the Buying & Planning voice: advocate for departmental needs and goals, ensuring cross-departmental knowledge sharing and mutual goal setting
• Be a strategist: Deliver well considered recommendations on strategies to push inventory, replenish or course-correct as necessary
• Collaborate across the organization: Partner with our CX, Logistics, Production, Merchandising & Marketing teams to deliver products to our customers in the right quantity, at the right time
• Manage inventory: Obsess over inventory health and execute relevant tactics to ensure inventory goals are accomplished
• Be a leader: Take full responsibility for Buying & Planning function, drive results while embodying MM values. Lead the Sales Strategy process

Key Responsibilities:

Financial Forecasting & Open-to-Buy Management

• Build detailed inventory plans incorporating sales forecasting and investment levels across categories and inventory status
• Lead Open-to-Buy discussions and manage the budgeting process, partnering closely with Finance to align on seasonal investments, inventory strategies, and receipt flow
• Determine promotional strategies and markdown cadence, sourcing liquidation options as needed. Hindsight promotions, utilizing partners where needed, to understand customer behavior, elasticity and overall success across metrics. Provide recommendations for promotional structures, strategies and product inclusion
• KPIs: Inventory Turn, WOS, Gross Margin, Achieving Forecast

Collection Buying & Planning

• Partner with Merchandising to develop a comprehensive Product Thesis and pre-season SKU plan with recommendations on how to grow/maintain/decline categories, outlining planned SKU count targets by category and development status (fashion, recolored core, refab)
• Pre-season, forecast selling by Style across categories and subcategories for all Selling Status; in-season analysis against weekly/monthly sales targets
• Provide detailed in-season and end of season hindsighting analysis, partner with Merchandising to articulate future needs
• Identify areas of opportunity and collaborate with Merchandising on collection development to ensure alignment with commercial goals
• React quickly to business trends, chasing into high-potential styles or identifying slow sellers and recommend tactics to move through slower inventory.
• KPIs: SKU productivity, Collection Sell Through, Collection Sales Performance

Core Strategy & Replenishment

• Continuously monitor core performance down to SKU level, providing recommendations on ongoing core assortment
• Pre-season, forecast selling by Style across categories and subcategories for all Selling Status; in-season analysis against weekly/monthly sales targets
• Drive replenishment process with demand forecasting, taking into consideration for seasonality and overall business needs
• Maintain the right levels of stock by SKU, avoiding stock outs and hitting target WOS range
• Manage greige program and fabric purchasing needs to facilitate shorter lead times and “right size” buys
• Own future receipts and manage receipt flow with business demand
• KPIs: SKU productivity, # Stock Outs, WOS, Inventory Turn

Channel Support

• Drive optimal assortment planning across all channels including E-commerce, Retail and Wholesale
• Lead team to execute inventory allocation, initiates timely product replenishment, inventory rebalance and assortment updates
• Support Offline & Brand initiatives with strategic planning, promotional cadance, assortment, and hindsighting.
• Support Wholesale execution, providing product assortment recommendations, analyzing business case and owning relationships with liquidation partners
• Source and incorporate feedback from Channel Owners to arrive at optimal assortment necessary to hit sales targets and other brand objectives
• Collaborate with external partners and contractors to execute desired assortment and replenishment strategies
• Spearhead liquidation efforts; coordinate with 3rd parties on terms & assortment, algin cross-functional teams as necessary.
• KPIs: Gross Less Discount Revenue, Discount Rate, YoY growth, SKU productivity by channel, Sell Through by channel, Channel Inventory Turns (in time)

Profitability

• Partner with Finance to develop overall IMU targets across Core and Collection. Responsible for setting IMU recommended targets within merchandising mix plan to drive Gross Margin growth.
• Partner with Product Development, Production and Merchandising to realize IMU targets across Core and Collection.
• Balance discounting levers with overall Net Sales and Gross Margin targets
• KPIs: IMU %, Gross Margin, Discount Rates

Leadership

• Mentor and grow direct reports to be strong, value-add team members
• Ensure right level of delegation and instruction in order to focus time on strategic priorities
• Manage up by communicating the right level of information and using astute judgment
• Represent the Buying & Planning point of view in cross-functional conversations
• Lead the Sales Strategy process. In preseason, set the overall calendar direction: drops and key promotional timing. In season, identify areas of risk and opportunity, partner with cross-functional teams to execute. Weekly, partner with cross-functional team to identify key trends in the business and deliver a clear executive summary of performance coupled with questions and recommendations needed to adapt the business

Key Metrics: Gross Less Discount Revenue, Inventory Turn, SKU Productivity, Collection Sell Through, Core and Carryover Weeks of Supply, Discount Rates, Gross Margin.

Who are you?

• A visionary who is able to think at a high level and support strategy with qualitative and quantitative reasoning.
• A culture leader who builds strong cross-functional relationships and ensures results are achieved collaboratively.
• A persuasive and strategic thought partner who communicates articulately and with conviction.
• Able to anticipate potential challenges and think ahead of the immediate.
• A critical thinker who can identify challenges and opportunities.
• A strong executer who is able to put into action plans and strategies that deliver results.
• A risk-taker who is not afraid to push the boundaries and drive continuous improvement.
• A strategist who is able to balance competing priorities, seek input cross-functionally where appropriate and help teams arrive at a consensus on plan of action
• A savvy business operator who takes initiative to conduct independent research, stay abreast of industry changes and customer behavior
• An invaluable member of the team who embodies MM values and cares deeply about the development of her team and colleagues.

This is a hybrid position based out of our corporate office in lower Manhattan. This role should work from the office 3 days per week.

Effective September 13, 2021, all employees, guests, and customers entering any M.M.LaFleur facility must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the Moderna, Pfizer, or Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Employees unable to receive the vaccine due to medical conditions or sincere religious beliefs may apply for exemption from this policy through reasonable accommodation. The company will evaluate those requests consistent with its legal obligations.

If you are a New York City applicant:

• • The estimated annual pay range for this role, based in New York City, is $150,000-160,000.
  • This role will be eligible to participate in our company’s equity program, 401k program, and benefits.

Our salary ranges are based on paying competitively for our size and industry, and are one part of many compensation, benefits and other reward opportunities we provide.

Individual pay rate decisions are based on a number of factors, including qualifications for the role, experience level, skill set, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company.