nicola sutherland

• Spearheaded development of USD 15 million childrenswear business from concept to execution.
• Launched new multi product lines and managed in-house space for major retailers, expanding market presence and customer reach.
• Sourcing globally across Far East, Middle East. & Turkey
• Strategically created and developed Maybe Baby, Maybe Junior, and Maybe Baby Homewear to replace Mothercare, now featured in 690 Boots stores
• Established strategic partnerships with F&F, Primark, George Asda, Tu, Next, and Boots.
• Set ambitious sales growth targets, significantly enhancing team performance.
• Formulated comprehensive business plans aligned with corporate objectives.
• Streamline operational processes for improved efficiency
• Continually identified and capitalised on new market opportunities to increase profitability
• Developed brands including Frankie Bridge, Never Fully Dressed Kids, 9 Peak boys, & Silver Cross baby wear for F&F and Too Young to be Bored for TU
• Supported other business verticals within the group with product and customer introduction

Launched Indigo & Weave as a consultancy firm supporting international suppliers in successfully partnering with leading UK retailers with a particular focus on kids and baby wear.

Became UK leading consultant with the Hirdaramani Group, Sri Lanka from a recommendation from F&F directors to collaboratively support and increase their USD20 million turnover business with the supermarket. This entailed working across kids, men’s and ladies though end to end consulting including design direction, pricing architecture, merchandising strategy and brand analysis.

Acted a the strategic interface between Hirdaramanis production and design teams in country and F&F buying and design teams to ensure product alignment, on time delivery and margin optimization.

Managed on going consultancy for two Indian textile groups, facilitating their entry into both the Uk and Middle Eastern clothing markets.

Streamlined operations and delivered exceptional results under the pressure of covid

The Li & Fung group encourages self motivated and driven individuals to develop strong profitable business models which contribute to the groups overall turnover.

Created a highly regarded children's, baby and young fashion multi product business from scratch supplying private label, licensed product and internal brands to NEXT, F&F, MOTHERCARE, GEORGE ASDA, TU, BOOTS, PRIMARK,PENNEYS, MATALAN AND MORRISONS.

Managed full P&L of the business, planned and delivered focused sales budgets delivering financial targets and margin.

Met required pricing architecture of each retailer by working on cmt/raw materials . Turover continued to grow despite a challenging market year on year with strong margin and significant growth for the first quarter of 2019 to both sales and margin.

Recruited and mentored dedicated design team, account management and merchandising along with tech in the Uk and across all sourcing offices in the far East, Middle East and Turkey. Developed full ranges on a 6 week buying cycle ensuring focus on digital first approach retailers such as Next

Continued to grow strong relationships with senior management of key retailers to ensure continually abreast of strategy to makes changes and react accordingly.

Provided direction and leadership to the business when new ventures were undertaken to meet key group objective by inspiring and guiding the teams during changes within the group.

Poeticgem part of PDs multinational manages consumer ladies, men’s and kids supply chain for retailers and brands worldwide. The global network spans 28 offices across 150 countries, It had an entrepreneurial approach appointing self motivated business heads who were given autonomy to drive their business model

Created a Childrenswear, babywear and young fashion business supplying value and middle market retailers.

Established an innovative and inspirational kids showroom offering multi product one stop shop for private label retailers by developing strong brand identity.

Implemented and led strong design, admin and tech teams to implement right product and meet critical path and production plans.

Developed a strong compliant sourcing infrastructure across Asia, Middle East and Near East.

Managed full P&L, assessing margins and monitoring performance.

Successfully relocated part of the UK team overseas to meet market challenges on costs, speed to market and efficiency.

Key customer base F&F, Next, George Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Matalan, River Island, Primark, Dunnes, Max Dubai

Li and Fung had a global turnover of USD6 billion with 62 offices worldwide and a diverse sourcing operation within the textile industry.

Responsible for growth of the UK market in-line with corporate strategy.

Developed and led design team to work on new trends and market opportunities.

Strong leadership of production teams, tech, fabric and risk assessment teams.

Developed strong and effective relationships overseas to potentialise customer needs based on product expertise.

Key customer base F&F, M&S, Asda, New Look, Moss Bross, C&A, John Lewis, Cath Kitson, River Island, Arcadia Group

Responsible for driving business and achieving growth across the Childrenswear and babywear market.

Developed and sourced multi product from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mauritiu, Indonesi, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Turkey, Europe and the Uk

Key customers M&S, BHS, Mothercare. Primark, Penneys,, Next, Debenhams and Arcadia