BUYER – CHARACTOR LICENSE – FASHION & ACCESSORIES – POD
STAFFORDSHIRE – FULL TIME HEAD OFFICE BASED ROLE
Our client is a fast-growth licensed pop culture merchandise and clothing wholesale business, supplying major retail partners including Next, Matalan, Amazon and M&;S. Due to rapid growth they are now looking to recruit an experienced Buyer / Product Developer to take ownership of offshore buying across newness for the business, working closely with design, suppliers and licensors to bring ranges to life.
This is a hands-on, commercially-led buying role covering apparel and accessories across multiple licences. You’ll manage the full product journey from research through to range sign-off, while also overseeing their Print on Demand project and supporting the widerteam.
What you’ll be doing
Buying:
● Managing offshore buys across newness for the business
● Researching licences, categories, competitors, marketplaces and pricing to inform product
decisions
● Following the master critical path to keep to production lead times and seasonal deadlines
● Planning ranges and identifying appropriate licences and suppliers
● Preparing and delivering briefs to design and suppliers
● Working with design and suppliers to select designs and develop samples
● Providing detailed buying and sampling comments, with feedback logged and communicated clearly
● Building full range plans including CADs, ratios, quantities, estimated costs, RRPs, stock values and RSVs
● Working to a buying budget to ensure ranges make commercial sense
● Using sales data, comparable products and commercial judgement to set quantities
● Presenting ranges for internal sign-off
● Handing over completed range plans for costing and buying sheets
● Reviewing samples across apparel and accessories, feeding back on fit, construction and quality
Print on Demand:
●Managing the POD project
● Planning the POD calendar annually, forecasting option counts , licences and key ranges
● Selecting and prioritising styles based on sales, seasonality, brand approvals and movie releases
● Managing blank selection, purchasing and replenishment across multiple styles
● Buying and managing UK blanks to extend product availability
● Reviewing and forecasting blank requirements to support warehouse and printers
● Overseeing outsourcing of prints through multiple channels
Team support:
● Managing and allocating buying-specific workload for Buying Admins
● Feeding workload to both designers
● Supporting the Wholesale team with feedback
● Working closely with Production on all buys
● Supporting Sales Merch with replenishment quantity allocations
● Acting as first point of contact for supplier and licensor queries
What we’re looking for
● Proven buying experience, ideally within character licensed product, apparel or fashion wholesale – ideally POD
● Strong commercial judgement and confidence working to a budget
● Comfortable interpreting sales data to drive quantity and range decisions
● Excellent supplier and stakeholder communication
● Highly organised, able to manage multiple ranges and deadlines at once
● Experience briefing design teams and reviewing samples is a strong advantage
What you’ll get
● The chance to work across a varied portfolio of major entertainment and pop culture licences
● A fast-growing business with real scope to shape the buying function
● A close-knit, collaborative team environment
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