Allocator - AUS

About Our Company

Lids Sports Group is the largest licensed sports retailer in North America, selling fan and fashion-oriented headwear and apparel across the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Australia. Operating out of Indianapolis, IN, our retail stores offer officially licensed headwear and apparel professional sports teams, plus top brands like Nike, New Era, Adidas, and Mitchell & Ness. We launched in Australia in 2022 and we currently operate 13 stores domestically, including specialty concept stores for the NBA. Our cap connoisseurs are dedicated to fuelling the passion for sports and fashion merchandise by meeting the needs of our loyal customers and casual shoppers alike. Our customers rely on our team to help them find and select products that represent their individualism, team pride and personal style.

The company is currently expanding with the goal of becoming the largest licensed brick-and-mortar sports retailer across the globe.

General Position Summary

This position will work to cultivate a solid knowledge of replenishment practices. A primary focus will be to align merchandising strategies and analytical skill sets to ensure that the right product is at the right stores at the right time.  The successful candidate will develop and implement store distribution strategies to support sales and inventory objectives,

drive retail profitability and ensure department financials goals are met.  You will partner with our buying (and planning) teams to execute product/program/category strategies to support financial plans.

Principle Duties and Responsibilities

• Build, develop, execute, and maintain allocation strategies to ensure maximum sell through and profitability on product while minimising markdowns.
• Analyse sales trends to ensure stores are in stock on core items, promotional product, new programs and seasonal merchandise.
• Identify and rectify stock imbalances in individual stores through the allocation of new receipts and replenishment inventory to maximise the ability of each store to generate sales and margin.
• Analyse SKU and program productivity to ensure store turn and weeks of supply goals are met : create and develop tiered assortment strategies.
• Review and analyse warehouse stock position and decide upon action as needed
• Ensure all stores have appropriate inventory levels to support presentation and sales while collaborating with cross functional teams.
• Other duties as assigned

Personal Attributes/Abilities/Qualities

• Relationship Management: able to build constructive and effective relationships with a broad and diverse group of business partners, both internally and externally
• Dealing with paradox: ability to balance conflicting & competing priorities.  Delivering a set of options, detailing impacts for each while driving to a single recommendation.
• Presentation skills : effective in presenting 1-1 or to small groups of peers
• Influencing and negotiation : can present ideas and directions that lead others to action
• Planning & Priority setting : demonstrate an ability to set objectives and goals and organise work appropriately to meet and exceed goals.
• Process Management : can identify and articulate the processes necessary to get things down efficiently and align resources effectively to complete activities.
• Systems & Tools acumen: advanced capabilities in Excel, PowerPoint and Word.
• Risk Management: anticipate risks and identify contingency plans and processes to prevent disruptions when risks occur.
• Live and breathe the Lids products and standards

Preferred Job Required Knowledge & Skills

• Bachelors degree in Business, Finance, Marketing, Fashion Merchandising or a related field.
• 1-5 years allocating, merchandising or equivalent experience preferred.
• Strong understanding of retail math and measures used in financial reporting.
• Ability to work autonomously with minimal supervision
• Ability to operate a computer and manoeuvre relative software programs.
• Have an analytical mind: ability to think objectively and interpret meaningful themes from quantitative and qualitative data.
• Financial acumen: ability to evaluate financial and business indicators and translate data into actionable information to drive results.
• Problem solving: able to use rigorous logic and methods to solve problems with effective solutions