The Barbour story began in 1894 in South Shields in the North East of England. Founder John Barbour began supplying oilskins and other garments to protect the growing community of sailors, fishermen and dockers. Still family owned and now fifth generation, Barbour HQ remains in South Shields. Under the leadership of Chairman Dame Margaret Barbour, Barbour has grown into a lifestyle brand sold in over 55 countries worldwide including Europe, the US and Asia offering a wardrobe of stylish functional clothing, footwear and accessories inspired by the unique values of the British countryside. The iconic Barbour Bedale and Barbour Beaufort wax jackets continue to be made by hand in the factory in South Shields. In 2020, Barbour launched Wax for Life, an overarching name for all of Barbour’s wax services designed to encourage customers to extend the life of their wax garments. Wax for Life includes re-waxing and repairs (first introduced in 1921) and Barbour Re-Loved an upcycling circularity initiative. Each year over 70,000 wax garments are sent back to Barbour globally to be repaired, rewaxed or altered.
Position Overview:
We have an exciting opportunity for a high-calibre commercial leader to join our UK & I Sales team as Head of Merchandising. In this pivotal role, you will provide key support to the General Manager (GM), contributing to the overall UK strategy and performance while leading the development of a 5-year plan. You will be responsible for unlocking strategic growth initiatives through deep customer insight and market trends, owning the end-to-end dropship model, and driving commercial success across wholesale channels and connecting with retail.
*The role is based at our London Showroom, and the expectation is 4 days in the office and 1 day of home-working*
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
Strategic Planning & Commercial Leadership
- Key support to GM, contributing to overall UK strategy and performance.
- Lead the development of the 5-year plan, aligning with UK objectives set by GM.
- Identify and unlock strategic growth initiatives based on performance, customer insight and market trends.
- Own seasonal budgeting and forecasting for wholesale ensuring alignment to financial targets, work with retail merchandising to align of focus areas, assortments and stock packages and communicate an aligned view of UK market to GM.
- Communicate weekly, monthly and seasonal wholesale financial performance to senior leadership. Align with retail merch to ensure a holistic UK view is given to GM.
- Maintain strong understanding of market dynamics, consumer trends and competitive landscape.
Account Management Dropship
- Senior lead on key strategic account, supporting relationship management, trade performance and growth plans.
- Own and develop the dropship model end-to-end:
- Forecasting and stock planning
- Assortment definition by account
- Performance tracking and optimisation
- Identify opportunities across channels (wholesale, dropship) to drive incremental sales.
- Ensure alignment between account strategy, merchandising plans and operational execution.
Stock Management & Core Business Optimisation
- Own UK core forecasting in collaboration with forecasting teams.
- Provide clear visibility on core stock turn, risks and opportunities across key partners.
- Drive in-season trade initiatives to optimise stock position and maximise sell-through.
- Ensure effective inventory management across forward order, in-season and dropship channels.
- Collaborate cross-functionally (Sales, Forecasting, Logistics) to ensure stock supports commercial targets.
Assortment & Range Planning
- Define and align option count frameworks based on sell-in and sell-out performance and feedback to design and forecasting.
- Lead post-season analysis to inform future range development (option counts, pricing architecture, margin).
- Assortment planning across key accounts and channels, including dropship along with retail merchandiser.
- Conduct seasonal pricing and margin analysis to support profitability targets.
- Partner with Sales, Marketing and Product teams to ensure ranges meet customer and market needs.
- Lead reporting and analysis of sell-out performance across majors and independents and align on headlines with retail merchandiser and communicate to GM and Heads of Sales/Retail/Design.
- Generate actionable insights to inform trading decisions and strategic direction.
- Own and evolve wholesale processes to improve efficiency and effectiveness across teams.
- Act as a key stakeholder in critical path management, ensuring cross functional alignment and on time delivery.
- Lead system and process enhancements, including ownership of key projects (e.g. NuOrder integration into M3).
- Develop and track KPIs to evaluate merchandising performance and inform decision-making.
Cross-Functional Collaboration & Ways of Working
- Drive alignment across Sales, Merchandising, Retail, Forecasting, Marketing and Logistics.
- Ensure clear communication of performance, risks and opportunities across all stakeholders.
- Embed consistent ways of working that improve decision-making, speed and accountability.
- Support a culture of data-led trading and continuous improvement.
Skills and Experience:
- Highly numerate and data-driven, with the ability to translate complex data into clear commercial insights, forecasts and actionable strategies.
- Strategic thinker with strong commercial acumen, capable of shaping long-term plans while optimizing in-season performance to deliver sustainable growth and profitability.
- Exceptional cross-functional leadership, with the ability to influence and align stakeholders across Sales, Finance, Product, Marketing and Logistics to deliver end-to-end outcomes.
- Strong ownership and accountability, with a proven track record of delivering financial targets through proactive decision-making and risk/opportunity management.
- Advanced planning and organizational capability, able to manage multiple trading cycles, critical paths and strategic projects in a fast-paced environment.
- People leader and team builder, experienced in developing high-performing teams, setting clear direction and embedding ways of working that drive performance.
- Confident communicator and negotiator, able to manage senior external partners and internal stakeholders to unlock commercial opportunities.
- Digitally and operationally aware, with experience across ecommerce, dropship and evolving wholesale models, and a mindset for continuous improvement and innovation.
- Discretionary Company bonus scheme
- Staff Discount
- Staff Shop
- 25 days holiday as standard increasing with length of service plus bank holidays
- Access to training and development activities to support your career development
- Free onsite parking
- Subsidised canteen
- Operate hybrid & flexible working
- Refer a friend bonus scheme
Note: In the event that a sufficient volume of suitable applications are received, the post may close prior to the specified closing date. Please apply as soon as possible if interested.
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