Summary:

At the crossroads of fashion and sport, Lacoste creates and liberates movement. Both universal and timeless, the brand transcends cultures and generations, elevating the crocodile as a rally sign.

An iconic French brand present in nearly 100 countries, Lacoste stand out for its unique know-how in each of its areas of expertise, from garment factory to omnichannel distribution.

At Lacoste, elegance goes beyond style. This elegance guides all of its actions and its social and environmental commitments.

Working at Lacoste is belonging to a community of 8,500 employees on the move to build the future. Committed to making equal opportunities a reality and to revealing potential, the company brings together talents from all walks of life, embracing their differences.

Lacoste is one of the inspiring brands driven by passionate people within the MF Brands Group, alongside Aigle, Gant, Tecnifibre and the Kooples (http://mf-brands.com/).

Summary Description:

This position is responsible for leading the buying function for Lacoste product for all departments for the Wholesale Channel.  This individual will partner with the Sr.Director of Buying and Merchandising, as well as Wholesale Account Managers to identify market trends and set the buy strategy. In conjunction with this, they will be working with the wholesale team to ensure their product needs are being met.  The Buyer will be responsible for developing and driving appropriate assortments for our Wholesale channel by tier, ensuring brand goals and objectives are met through historical analysis, trends, and the specific needs of Wholesale Partners.  

Essential Job Responsibilities:

• In partnership with the Sr. Director of Buying and Merchandising, VP of Wholesale, and Key Account Managers, set a buying strategy for our Wholesale Channel to realize brand goals and objectives.
• Product accountability for all categories (Textiles,Footwear,Leathergoods,Underwear)
• Present assortment strategies to wholesale accounts during market appointments tailoring opportunities to the client's needs. 
• Edit Assortments to tailor the needs of Wholesale Partners and lead the buy strategy.
• Manage wholesale pricing structure and margin goals to achieve targets.
• Lead the communication between MBP and Wholesale teams regarding changes in assortment strategy or inventory demand.
• Partner with Wholesale Account Managers and Key Accounts to understand the product needs of the customer. 
• Partner with Merchandising teams in France regarding the construction of the seasonal line, addressing assortment needs (Exclusives/Capsules) to HQ Partners.
• Work in close partnership with planning, visual merchandising, and retail team to manage in-season business performance, as well as coordinate in advance for each seasonal delivery.
• Focus on future business by identifying market trends, assortment opportunities, and understanding the Lacoste customer.
• Partner with the planning team regarding buying strategy and ensuring financial viability and excellence in execution.
• Complete the buy during market; product selection and assortment, while managing the sku and merchandise plan and meeting financial objectives.
• Liaise with supply chain, as well as planning and allocation to ensure availability and the timely delivery of merchandise.
• Partner with team to run analysis and prepare selling hindsight’s on weekly, monthly, quarterly, seasonal basis in order to help identify opportunities in the assortment.

Requirements/Qualifications:

• Proven success buying and managing assortments within wholesale channel, and ideally, experience working with a European corporate office.
• Strong analytical and retail math skills.
• Anaplan experience a plus but not required.
• Strong communications, time management and presentation skills.
• A critical thinker who drives solutions.
• Sport Background is plus.
• Exhibits strong leadership skills with ability to motivate a team and create a sense of urgency
• Flexible team player, ability to work collaboratively across all departments.
• 5+ years’ experience in a Buying/Merchandising role.  Wholesale experience is required.  

Core Values and Traits:

Accountable: 

• Have the ability to take responsibility for results.
• Be responsive and able to address questions and issues every day.
• Be able to recognize the contributions of others.
• Able to recognize success as well as failure and being able to learn both individually and collectively from past experiences, retaining best practices.  

Audacious: 

• Willing to take risks and create new ways of working together.
• Being capable of changing conventional ways and doing what makes sense even when faced with challenges. 
• The ability to take the road less traveled and going beyond current trends to achieve results.
• Have the ability to excite our customers with innovation.

Collaborative: 

• Able to share opinions and information to work together differently.
• Building trust and cooperation among associates to make important decisions. 
• Learning to execute solutions and face difficult problems together.
• Cultivate strength and cooperative spirit. 
• Share achievements within and between teams throughout the organization.

Respectful: 

• Being considerate of other people’s point of view.
• Recognizing that diversity in terms of opinions and approaches is an opportunity to explore new creative ways of thinking.
• The ability to have open and direct communication that fosters people development. 

* This job description is not intended to be exhaustive.  It can be changed orally or in writing at any time by the discretion of management.  We as Lacoste associates must always ensure that all functions of our position are represented with our core values being: Accountable, Audacious, Collaborative, and Respectful.