About the Company

Vanquish Fitness was created in 2015 by two school friends, Oliver Maloney and Ruben O’Brien, and is now, not just an apparel brand and online retailer, but one of the fastest growing fitness communities in the world! Our mission is to inspire our colleagues on their pursuit of self-defined greatness. Providing the time and resources that our employees need to strive to become Better Than Yesterday.

About the Role

We currently have an exciting opportunity at Vanquish Fitness for a Senior Fashion Buyer to join our growing team. As our Senior Buyer, you will take a user-centric approach to help form the vision and roadmap for the various Vanquish Fitness collections, working with cross functional teams to plan, build and iterate high-quality product experiences for our customers. Being a key part of our in-house team you will be able to produce your best work in a fast paced, creative environment, and you’ll be rewarded by seeing the impact of your work on customers in the real world, especially while attending our community events.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Work with our assistant Merchandiser, Finance and Operations to ensure discipline in delivering products on time and within margin
• Maintain close relationships with key supply chain and collaborative partners
• Track and manage the goods from Supplier to Partner, managing and reporting on each of the critical milestones. This will be done by constantly liaising with the wider business and factories, updating tracking reports and the Critical path, updating the Vanquish team when necessary.
• Take ownership of the Critical Path, ensuring that all information is up to date from both the factory and internal sample / lab dip approval perspective. Clearly communicate any date changes to the wider business during the weekly catch up.
• Chase missing information from factories when necessary to ensure smooth operation of stock. (Including, but not limited to, samples, lab dips, trims, order information)
• Ensure a consistent and commercially relevant offering through competitor analysis and research when requested. Feeding this information back to relevant Department Heads and VQ Founders.
• Reduce processing delays and costs.
• Anticipate the needs of the customer, using sales and trend data to deliver commercial product ranges.
• Maintaining relationships with existing suppliers and sourcing new suppliers.
• Liaise with the Merchandiser and update the cross functional teams weekly on any movements regarding the Release Calendar / launch dates.
• Work with the Merchandiser, Design team and VQ Founders to formulate range plans and develop a strong product launch pattern adhering to the VQ brand identity with an appropriate pricing strategy.
• Contributing to trade meetings, communicating key messages and actions to wider depts.
• Ensuring orders are aligned, negotiating payment terms for the upcoming collections and monitoring successful deliveries.
• Work with VQ founders to determine sale prices for each launch and flag any low margins or areas of concern

About You

• 3-5 years experience as a Buyer/Senior Buyer in the fashion/retail sector, ideally for an SME or start up, experience within the activewear industry is a big advantage
• Comfortable managing and maintaining relationships with key departments
• Able to confidently present new ideas to senior management teams
• Good creative ability and strong attention to detail
• Ability to switch between daily tasks and longer term goals
• A problem-solver
• Proven in delivering commercial impact through product excellence
• Strong Excel skills
• Ability to make hard decisions
• Experience of supporting design decisions with insights and keeping commercial targets in mind
• Good communication skills demonstrated by proactively keeping people informed and up to date
• Excellent organisational skills, and the ability to manage your time efficiently
• Very strong knowledge of buying and merchandising, critical paths and possible pinch points
• Flexible and able to react to business needs
• Experience in a fast-paced environment
• Experience in working to target prices
• A proven track record of delivering new solutions that deliver tangible benefits

Benefits

25 days annual leave (Plus BH)

Sick pay

Annual apparel allowance

Discounts on everything Vanquish

Attendance to our community events

Free drinks in the office

Quarterly Socials

Hybrid working (2 days from home)

35 hour working week

Free Parking

Modern office in the grounds of a beautiful House gardens, perfect for lunch time walks to get your steps in