Reports to: VP Merchandising
Overview: The Buyer/Product Manager realizes company goals by managing the procurement, importation, and stock flow of specified retail merchandise, wholesale merchandise & store supply items.
Responsibilities:
Purchasing
Negotiate aggressive pricing, payment terms, shipping terms and delivery dates to ensure vendors meet and exceed profit margin goals, seasonal merchandising plan schedules, and deliveries.
Generate, place and track all purchase orders for assigned items as initiated by VP of Merchandising. Work with Teavana Logistics to facilitate shipping schedule, best freight rates, receiving.
Communicate clearly with overseas suppliers by phone, chat and email to ensure all corporate goals are met.
Review line quarterly, with VP Merchandising, to identify ongoing list of items to source, develop and purchase.
Import Management
Build, in conjunction with Teavana Logistics, Freight Forwarders and Ocean Freight Lines, a by-country freight grid with rate comparisons of types of shipments.
Build shipping matrix by port to ensure that Teavana is utilizing correct shipment ports and pushing suppliers to the correct freight terms that will maximize gross margin goals.
Research and manage all current and future quota, anti-dumping duty or other trade issues pertaining to product sourced.
Develop compliance strategy to meet company, federal, state and international requirements.
Coordinate and facilitate building of full containers overseas in partnership with Vendors, Freight Forwarders and Teavana Logistics.
Facilitate, with Teavana Finance, vendor payment program including negotiating payment methods and terms, managing letters of credits and deposits/balances; negotiate chargebacks, refunds and discounts as necessary for non-compliance
Maintain, with Teavana Logistics, the container shipping schedule with shipment, container, vendor and arrival detail.
Supplier Relations
Negotiate exclusivity agreements with suppliers for distribution of their production in North America
In partnership with Planning and Logistics develop vendor performance reporting evaluating performance measures regularly and making recommendations for change.
Further develop and communicate Vendor Manual, ensuring sign-off by all suppliers and compliance with requirements.
Provide qualitative feedback to Teavana management and vendor management about performance on a weekly basis.
Maintain highest business ethics standards, representing Teavana in every transaction, while building strong direct relationships with vendors.
Sourcing & Production
Research, identify and engage import manufacturers/vendors to support procurement of product & supply items, securing multiple resources for quotations and production. Establish direct relationships with factories eliminating agents, trading houses or other middlemen.
Create and manage detailed strategic sourcing plans for all categories of product to meet inventory turns, purchasing, & shipment goals and meet or exceed product markup & margin goals. Source multiple vendors for each type of product, solicit and arrange multiple "apples to apples" quotations.
Create, with vendors, a production plan for each assigned product’s supply by month or quarter. Establish secondary supply strategy to support company’s growth plans by supplementing certain factories’ production capacity with other resources.
Create, maintain, and review "time-to-market" calendar, creating efficiencies to ensure on-time production & delivery. Follow up regularly with suppliers to ensure calendar dates are met.
Raise product quality levels. Create individual standards for types of materials, production quality, display packaging and shipping cartons for each category of product. Establish standards, compare samples and production to standards and communicate results to vendors and management. Develop continuous improvement program, pushing suppliers to exceed set goals.
Provide monthly report of production schedule to PO dates, calendar, vendor relations & compliance, and progress toward strategic plan.
Product & Packaging Development
Create and maintain sample process: coordinating sample production, cost-effective deliveries and detailed reviews with Merchandising and Creative teams. Provide clear and concise feedback to vendor to speed product & packaging development process.
Develop in partnership with Purchasing and Creative, detailed product & packaging development process, facilitating artwork to vendors and samples/approval requests back to Teavana.
Develop in partnership with Purchasing and Creative, eco-friendly packaging options for assigned products
Requirements
Qualifications:
Bachelor's degree in International Business, International Finance, or International Relations preferred.
3-5 years experience in import purchasing, overseas buying, global sourcing,
production or procurement with an in-depth knowledge of supply chain management.
Thorough understanding of supply chain management best practices. Current knowledge of trends in procurement and sourcing.
Working knowledge of retail math including markup, open to buy, gross margin, and inventory turn.
Strong negotiation skills.
Working knowledge of freight terms, duty rates, HTC’s, CBM’s, freight rates and how these factors affect costs of goods.
Self-management of project calendar and task-based timelines.
Proven ability to analyze data and historic information to determine where improvement is needed.
Demonstrated ability to identify problems and proactively recommend solutions.
Proven ability to build strong internal and external relationships.
Proven fact-based decision-making and problem solving skills.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Good working knowledge of Outlook, Excel, and Word.
Fluency in written and spoken English AND Mandarin and/or Japanese desired.