HEVA SIMPSON

• I am responsible for all product areas at Findel that we supply to schools & nurseries both domestically and internationally with a turnover of £109m.
• I joined in 2018 as buying manager for consumables and within a year was promoted to head of the buying division.
• I have 3 direct reports and a wider team of 29.
• Until 2021 I was also responsible for the QA department.

Key achievements:

• Increasing demand by 16.3% YoY in Financial Year 23 across all product categories. This was from a base of +12.1% YoY growth the financial year before.
• Increased the buying margin by 6.7% over 4 years by resourcing volume opportunities to China & India and domestically working with brands closely to deliver growth. We are on track to deliver another 1.1% this financial year by re-engineering our range structures.
• Re-established the NPD team as a key pillar of the business strategy to drive customer retention & recruitment through unique products targeted at teachers and early years practitioners, in line with educational trends and budgets. This has resulted in market share growth in two key categories. In the last 12 months we have increased market share in curriculum products by +3pp to 23.7%, and by 4.5pp in early years product to 38.3%.
• Made customer insight the buying & NPD priority and focus, ensuring visits to establishments as appropriate and building relationships with the key influencers in the primary and early years sector.
• Actively seek out new markets to explore best practice from to grow our NPD offer such as visits to Iceland and Finland nurseries. These have led to the introduction of new innovative resources for nurseries that have significantly contributed to our nursery growth. The Early Years offer has gone from £8m in FY22 to £15m in FY24, and we are on track to deliver £17m in FY25.
• Aligned the buying team with the go to market team to actively drive trading and newness and support the move from selling from catalogue and printed materials to trading digitally.
• Restructured the buying team to enable efficiencies and create a structure with room for growth for individuals.
• Targeted teams with sku rationalisation and range restructure to drive profit and enable easier customer shopping journeys online and offline.

Key Responsibilities:

• Create and deliver the product strategy in line with the business growth plans.
• Supplier strategy, relationships and delivery of rebates and marketing contributions.
• Buying Margin - domestically, internationally and via our Trade partners.
• Own the Buying, QA & NPD total P&L, including ROIs for investments and capitalising where possible.
• Quality assurance - ensuring we meet the ethical standards and product standards required for educational establishments.
• Working closely with the head of merchandising to manage intake plans and achieve our required service levels.
• Actively support the sales department in winning tenders through sourcing and cost negotiations.
• Actively engage and participate in BESA (British Educational Supplier Association) meetings and workshops.
• Mental Health First Aider for the division.

• I was responsible for an area that is worth 18% of the Matalan Home turnover
• Covering Seasonal Events (Christmas, Easter and Mother's Day), Luggage, Entertainment (DVDs & Books) and Queue line products (incl. Stationery, Greetings Cards and Batteries) (total annual turnover £30m)

Key achievements:

• I consistently grew my departments
• In 2017 I grew Christmas sales by 8.4% to £9m and profit by 5% to £4m. This was following 11% profit growth in 2016, and 30% sales growth in 2015.
• Since buying Luggage in 2012 I increased the turnover from £8m to £13m. This was achieved through implementing a Good / Better / Best strategy, ensuring we offer a product to suit all our customer types, planning key promotional strategies at significant times of the year to drive sales, and working closely with the supply base to ensure we offered the latest innovations in luggage and grow profit.
• By putting into practice learnings from our successful Christmas and Gifts range, I grew our Events business (Easter, Mother's Day) by 25% in 2017, with early sell throughs creating opportunity for further growth in 2018.
• In 2016 I moved our Entertainment contract from an SOR basis to a concession contract to free up cash flow as this moved the stock responsibility to the supplier. This required negotiation of contracts, updating the board of directors with the process, liaising with store operations and store development to ensure all stakeholders were bought into the new contract.
• Until January 2017 I was also responsible for Gifts, Toys and Outdoor Living
• In 2016 I delivered our most profitable year on Gifts, by concentrating on the types of gifts our customers buy into - stocking fillers, secret Santa gifts and kids add on gifts.
• I increased sales and profit on the Outdoor area by changing the product strategy to be less weather dependant and more appealing to Matalan's largest group of customers - families.
• I implemented a robust Food QA process working with an external food technologist to ensure the food gift area met all required legislation and arranged training for the team to understand key points when buying food related products.
• In 2015 I moved the dependency of our toy products from clearance to core and own brand products, increasing sales by 17% to £5m and profit by 19%.
• Following on from these successes and Matalan's expansion of Homeware, the business decided there was more opportunity to further grow these categories and created a new team to concentrate on the further growth of these areas.

My responsibilities included:

• Preparing seasonal strategies, range selections and sign offs based on current sales performance, sample sourcing trips and competitive shopping.
• Working closely with the design team to ensure the ranges are in line with market trends and also the customer profile.
• The Majority of ranges were own brand and I was responsible for sourcing product and monitoring the critical path from order stage, artwork approval, production samples, QA liaison and delivery.
• Planning mailer promotions for my areas around the marketing themes and seasons.
• I was also been responsible for coordinating the Home team mailer promotions and assisting the head of buying in presenting to the board for sign off.
• I was the Home coordinator for visual merchandising guides. I worked closely with the visual merchandising team, marketing and POS teams to deliver a cohesive in-store vision for Home categories alongside the rest of the business.
• Liaising with retail operations to ensure store engagement with the seasonal buying program.
• I managed an assistant buyer, trainee buyer and any short-term work experience placements.
• Up until 2017 I managed a team of one junior buyer, one assistant buyer and two trainee buyers. I take pride in developing my team and ensure they receive adequate training and delegate responsibilities to them as appropriate.
• The Christmas department covered all living and decoration aspects of Christmas and required precise planning and cooperation with all parts of the business to deliver sales in the required trading weeks.
• I also deputised for the Head of Buying where necessary and covered trading meetings, strategy meetings, company conference presentations and was involved in any workshops that were run to streamline processes.
• Previously as part of my role on the seasonal team I had worked with Disney on a DTR basis to deliver an exclusive range of Disney Home products (including Bedding, Soft Furnishings and Hard Goods) at Matalan.
• Delivered a Books Concession range.

• I was responsible for the Soft Furnishings and Home Accessories departments, covering Textiles such as Cushions, Rugs and Throws and also Hard Goods such as Frames, Wall Art, Artificial Flowers, Storage, Candles, Ornaments, Mirrors, Clocks, Vases and Lighting
• I managed a team of an assistant buyer and a trainee buyer

Key Achievements:

• In 2006 the majority of ranges were bought through importers and very little product development was done internally.
• By working closely with the designer and buying direct from factories in the East Asia I delivered a stronger range with much higher profit margins.
• I worked with and created Living ranges with known interior designers such as Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen under the Influence brand. This required delivering a product range that was to their brief, in keeping with their style but still within our customer expectations.

Key Responsibilities:

• Most of the ranges were bought direct from India or East Asia (China, Thailand and Vietnam) on an FOB basis and the buying trips were planned up to three times a year.
• I spent time visiting factories, trade shows and developing products.
• Attending trade fairs and sample shopping trips to keep up to date with product trends.
• Sales analysis every week, identifying growths and shortfalls and implementing action plans to react to sales to ensure the positive trading of the departments.
• Working with the merchandising team on weekly stock intake management.

• I covered a buyer's maternity leave from July 2005 up until my departure in the following departments: Party, Children's Stationery, Adult Stationery and Books (total annual turnover £19.5m)

Key Achievements:

• Successfully introduced a Kids Craft range and an own brand party range to the business, building sales on the core family customer.
• Moved the Books supply base from firm sale to a concession base, thus reducing significant stock holdings to help with cash flow and to deliver a better range to the customer and in turn increase profits.

Key Responsibilities:

• Range selections, sign offs, sample sourcing trips (UK and Europe), and competitive shopping.
• Monitoring the critical path of the range.
• Developing own brand product with the design team and identifying new areas for product development and growth.
• I managed and developed a trainee buyer.

• During my time at Makro as a trainee buyer I gained experience on managing an area and people - buyers' assistants and suppliers
• The job involved range planning, stock control, replenishment, handling account queries, formulating exit plans, planning contracts, completing trading terms agreements, planning Makro mails etc
• I also completed two negotiation skills courses and a team building course
• The bulk of my experience at Makro came from buying Office and Home Stationery.

• During the summer months of 2002, whilst I was finishing my dissertation, I completed 3 months' work at Mothercare in Watford as a merchandise assistant.
• During my time there I learnt various aspects of retail operations and my main role was allocating new merchandise, monitoring suppliers for stock and managing intake. This required close work with both the buying and replenishment teams.