Donna W.

Recently gained hands‑on Marks & Spencer store experience, bringing first‑hand understanding of customer behaviour, stock flow and operational realities to commercial trading decisions.

Head of Merchandising / Buying / Brand (Contract) – EMEA & Middle East - Delivered profitable trading performance across fashion, footwear and non‑food categories in complex international markets. - Built and led regional merchandising teams and implemented structured trading and planning disciplines. GAP, Banana republic, Burberry, Aldo, Aldo accessories, Call it Spring, Steve Madden, Charles & Keith, Primadonna, TG4; BHS International, Mothercare .

£8bn global travel retail business - Traded luxury categories across EMEIA, forecasting sales, intake and stock performance across c.6,500 SKUs. - Managed POs, OTB and intake plans to deliver KPI targets while controlling stock risk. - Superuser for Anaplan financial planning system; led cross‑functional transformation across Merchandising, Supply Chain and Finance. - Partnered directly with international suppliers, sharing performance dashboards and leading data‑driven trading discussions. Key Achievements: - Introduced and embedded Anaplan across three previously siloed teams within six weeks, achieving 85% utilisation. - Redesigned and automated supplier scorecards, improving forecasting and PO accuracy by 20%. - Accelerated trading decision‑making through regular insight sharing, improving reforecast accuracy by 20%.

£2bn value retail business, 1,400+ stores across 10 countries - Led commercial planning and trading for Apparel, Footwear and Home categories. - Owned OTB, intake and forecasting across multi‑market business. - Delivered range optimisation and assortment strategies tailored to different customer needs by market. - Led cross‑functional collaboration to resolve trading, supply chain and availability challenges. Key Achievements: - Designed and delivered a 1‑ and 3‑year merchandising strategy achieving year‑one KPIs. - Introduced WSSI planning to sub‑category level, improving forecasting accuracy and trading responsiveness. - Improved promotional availability to 98% (+25%) and reduced supply chain costs by 8%.

Full accountability for Home and Outdoor categories across 600 stores, controlling intake, OTB and availability.Inventory management, Merchandising and Merchandise Planning management. Forecasting and WSSI's to sub cat level and Range building in conjunction with Senior Buyers and Space planning ; Overseas travel, one month in Mainland China working at Walmart International HQ. - Improved stock turn from 1.9 to 3.5 and increased in‑stock availability to 96%. - Delivered +30% sales and +18% profit in Outdoor through improved range mix and trading decisions.

Superuser for Forecasting software, Decisionsystems across the business, Apparel and Non Food divisions. Full accountability for all Merchandising and Planning activities for Ladieswear,Lingerie and Non Food Categories. Introduced WSSI management and developed my own Excel based forecasting tool, by item which was adopted by the entire Buying Team, updated weekly and shared with Suppliers. Achieved the highest promotional launch sales for any Product.

Mothercare Brand. Biggest Franchised brand under the Alshaya umbrella. +2300 stores in 8 countries in Gulf, MENA region. 3 Warehouses. Full accountability of the OTB and range building for all aspects of the Baby and Childrenswear brand. Lead a team of 8 Merchandisers. Travelled extensively to UK to Storehouse group HQ. Changed the way of working strategically, from a sell-in to a sell-through business. I also reduced the stock cover in Cots and hard goods from3 yrs to 8 months, all within a 6 month timeframe.

Put together the Rugby World Cup 1995! Travelled to Hong Kong and delivered £1.4m to the bottom line in 1 week of Supplier negotiation and switching the sourcing offshore from 20/80 to 80/20.

Joined after Graduation selling Aramis on the Shop floor working in the Number 1 store in the country. Progressed into Management of a B grade store after 2 years at Supervisory level managing a team of 60 colleagues. Head Office beckoned which set me off in a new direction for the rest of my career in Retail working in Merchandise Planning in Ladies, Mens and Childrenswear and Cosmetics and Fragrances Divisions working as a Team with the Buyers and Head of Buying developing Product strategies to exceed KPI's in Sales and Profit; travelling to Suppliers to negotiate and seal deals to support a brand new way of Trading - stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap! The start of true Value retailing! Introduced and successfully launched the very first Own Brand High Fashion label, Countrywide with the Buying, Marketing and Operation Teams built from the ground up.