Buying Assistant

Are you looking for a new role within Retail as a Buying Assistant?

Mothercare is a specialist retailer of products for mothers-to-be, babies and young children, from maternity and children's clothing, to home furnishings, care products, travel equipment and toys. We aim to offer our customers a compelling mix of products of good design, high quality and value for money, available from our retail outlets, our catalogue and our online store. Over the last 40 years we have grown to include stores in 48 countries, and our strong brand means that Mothercare has a very bright future.

The Buying, Merchandising and Replenishment (BMR) teams based at our Watford Head Office work closely together to ensure that we sell our product range within store as profitably as possible. These teams are responsible for developing a commercial and exciting product range, working closely with suppliers to ensure that quality and value criteria are met, and that the flow of stock to our stores is as smooth as possible.

We are always looking for motivated and enthusiastic individuals to join our team. As a Buying Assistant you will:

• Learn about what makes a product range successful and profitable by analysing data on sales and understanding how a Buyer builds a balanced and commercial range.
• Be involved in colour and fabric approvals, sample management including ordering for aspects of the business, fit meetings with live models and pre-production meetings
• Set up and monitor the critical path for each item in the team's product range, from product development through to delivery to our warehouse.
• Raise all SKU's (stock keeping units) and contracts
• Build effective relationships with suppliers
• Help the Buying team prepare for meetings
• Liaise with other business functions including press, direct and Franchisee
• Gather information on our competitors, the market and our customers to feed into our Buying process.

Skills required:

As a Buying Assistant you'll need to be adaptable, willing, happy to carry out routine administrative work, pay close attention to detail at all times and work co-operatively as part of a team. Time management, a flexible approach to working, computer literate and excellent organisational skills are required for this role as well as a passion for our products and customers.

This is a fantastic opportunity to gain the experience and skills development necessary for a career in Buying. Ideally you will be studying relevant University courses and looking for an industry placement for 9-12 months, with remuneration paid monthly on a pro-rata basis.

Job Reference: 179

Location: Watford, Hertfordshire

Job Sector: Graduate

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