Senior Merchandiser - 12 Month Maternity Cover

Job Details

Job Title

Senior Merchandiser - 12 month maternity cover

Location

Royston

Contract Type

Contract Full-Time

Closing Date

18/4/2024

As we continue our mission to make people happy through chocolate, we’re looking for a Senior Merchandiserto join our Merchandising team on a 12-month maternity covercontract.

As Senior Merchandiser, you will optimise category sales and margin, minimise stock risk by monitoring and reacting to trading patterns, ensure intake is aligned to sales expectations, and identify and account for future key trends and trade influencers.

As well as a competitive salary and a range of company benefits, you’ll receive 50% discount on all products, and a 70% discount for you and your guests when you stay at our Rabot Estate hideaway on the paradise island of Saint Lucia.

Here at Hotel Chocolat, we've adopted hybrid working This means you’ll join us on site for three days a week, and for the other two days – you can work from wherever you like! The on-site location for this role is our Support Office, ‘Mint House’, in Royston, Hertfordshire. Our home from the very beginning, it’s just off the A505 and 10 minutes’ walk from Royston train station, with direct rail links to London King’s Cross.

What you’ll be doing….

• Forecasting SKU and category sales, combining current performance, seasonal and market trends, and accounting for marketing and promotional demand.
• Managing stock and sales at category level for current and seasonal trading conditions.
• Reporting on weekly and periodic category trade, providing accurate information to relevant stakeholders, aiding trading decisions and proposing actions where relevant.
• Identifying category risks and opportunities; recommending activity to increase sales and profit and decrease stock risk.
• Reporting against stock turn and shelf-life risk and proposing actions to minimise impact.
• Planning and reviewing markdowns and promotional activity to maximise profits and achieve terminal stock targets.
• Collaborating with stakeholders to manage new products, limited edition lines and season campaigns, escalating and resolving issues and communicating progress.
• Appraise performance of category; proposing action to optimise trade and highlighting lessons for the future.
• Collaborating with key internal stakeholders to drive process and improve reporting.
• Managing team members to optimise category sales and margin, and minimise stock risk.

Who you are…

You’ll drive process improvements with a pro-active approach continuous improvement, strong stakeholder relationships and an ability to influence decisions and manage and develop team members at all levels. Using your strong analytical skills, you can summarise complex data and present it in a concise and clear manner. You’re able to prioritise and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment. You can identify and drive key profit indicators with proven success, collaborating cross-functionally and lead workstreams for areas of accountability.

Essential

• 4+ years’ experience working within a retailer in a merchandising function.
• Fully competent in use of Microsoft Excel.

Desirable

• Ability to simplify complex processes.

Who are we?

We’re one of the UK’s favourite premium chocolate brands, with a range of products spanning luxury gifts, alcohol and our pioneering drinking chocolate system, the Velvetiser™.

A cacao pod takes years to grow – it can’t be rushed if it’s going to be just right for our products. The same can be said for Hotel Chocolat, which originally started as a mint production company before we realised it was luxury chocolate that we were really passionate about.

Now, we’re market leaders in the industry. What began as an online-only business grew to over 100 stores across the UK, and we’re still growing… Today, we’re multi-category, multi-channel, and multi-territory, and our customers, colleagues, cacao farmers and suppliers all benefit from the success we make together.

To learn more about us and read about our People Pledge – our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion – click here: hotelchocolat.com/uk/engaged-ethics/our-people.html