Planning Manager - Sportscraft

APG & Co

A leader in the Australian fashion industry, APG & Co designs and manages Sportscraft, SABA and JAG. For over 50 years, APG & Co. has curated, grown and evolved these brands to be at the forefront of Australian fashion. We celebrate our history while allowing our brands to express themselves in contemporary, relevant and authentic ways.

The working environment is dynamic, professional and passionate. The mission: Bringing Style to Life. APG & Co values working as a collective, thriving on change, and playing to win. We are built to last.

About Sportscraft

An iconic Australian brand founded in 1914. We are known for high quality, aspirational lifestyle daily wear. Our well-crafted essentials takes you from brunch to dinner and in-between, from every day casual to holiday and sport. We have a style for every story.

About the Role 

The primary objective of the Planning Manager will be to develop Brand plans and oversee the trading and performance, with a focus on ensuring the appropriate range mix and optimum buy quantity alongside optimising inventory to drive sales and profit.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and present to General Manager the merchandise & inventory strategy by season, focusing on lessons learnt – Building options plans, devising pricing strategy, category mixes, intake margin strategy based on ranging blend & GP strategy through effective promotional planning.
• Implement a trading calendar that captures market key trading periods such as key events and holidays, ensure that we have effective product strategies that capture market share and ensure mitigation of distressed activity.
• Collaborate with FP & A team through effective budgeting and forecasting to group timelines, working collaboratively on promotional analysis to understand how to leverage group vs brand.
• Develop and manage financial plans (categories and essential lines) together with buying manager, analysing their performance and forecast sales potential. Consistently looking for growth and improvement to sales productivity.
• Own brand milestone calendar and be a custodian to timing, ensure collaboration with senior leadership team to ‘’own’’ their section of the milestone.
• Implement buying triangle strategy to manage lifecycle of product and placement of the right volume of OTB into the right width of range – Constantly seek feedback and challenge the status quo
• Implement ranging strategy that maximises the store footprint, looking at department/gender/category and option plans to instil a learning culture of growth through trial.
• Fully accountable for the brand OTB, in stock of core and essentials, right levels of freshness to drive sales opportunity, ensuring an adequate portion of spend is allocated to ensure we are always learning through trialling and being agile.
• Trading of the brand to unlock new growth opportunities, in season trading of options and newness within categories and essentials to build future growth opportunities.

• Collaborations across digital and stores to ensure that we have a seamless customer experience – Implement in collaboration with digital trading calendar and ensure thorough understanding of execution online to achieve required results.
• Manage stock levels and implement markdown/discounting activities which maximise our exit position (GP%) to determine seasonal buying and aide marketing activities.
• Achieve critical financial targets such as Sales, Profit, Stock days and Sell through whilst being entrepreneurial & collaborative cross function
• Lead post seasonal reviews, investment sign offs and play a huge role in other brand milestone meetings to drive the right outputs against strategy.
• Replenishment/Inventory management – balance between stores and warehouse in line with sales plan
• Store grading strategy
• Be the key lead/champion on Planning Projects, continuously looking to improve efficiencies within the teams and business
• Own brand reporting and trade commentary across the group in collaboration with senior leadership team
• Delivery of new business initiatives in a positive and efficient manner
• Act as a key member of the brand senior leadership team with ownership of commercial outputs in absence of general manager.
• Work closely and business partnering with Buying/Design/Marketing/VM & Retail Operations
• Manage, coach and develop Planning functions and teams with development & succession plans in place
• Leadership and team management – motivates and coaches’ team to achieve goals through effective and consistent performance management conversations
• Maintain effective relationships with Key stakeholders within Retail Brand divisions i.e. Finance, retail, product and eCommerce teams
• Work with retail & digital teams to drive increased margin productivity per sqm & also ROAS for digital per EDM/digital comms.

Experience

• Senior planning professional with top tier Australian retailer (or FMCG) experience
• Executive leadership
• Experience of managing a team upwards of 3 direct reports
• Great track record of coaching and development & knows how to get the best out or the team
• Takes a strategic and customer orientated perspective to the business
• Continuous improvement focuses and ability to identify new opportunities
• Highly developed numerical skills, including accuracy and interpretation.
• Great at collaboration
• Growth mindset

Perks & Benefits

As part of the APG family, you’ll enjoy:

• 50% off all our brands
• Flexible working options – hybrid WFH and beautiful studio/office space
• 4pm Friday finishes and true work/life balance
• Birthday leave + monthly social events, morning teas & more
• Employee Assistance Program for you and your family
• Paid Parental Leave