Sandra Melek

Team lead of raw material planning for total Victoria’s Secret PINK brand worth $2B, coordinated strategic positioning of raw materials to enable agility as well as mitigate liability financial risk. Managing up to $88M of raw materials across all categories of the business. • Created creative strategies through quantitative analytics, qualitative research and a proactive approach to reduce $10M from liability budget driving favorable profit and loss statement results. • Overhauled the raw material management process based on comprehensive analysis to increase efficiencies by 60% while increasing savings by 35%. • Coordinated game plans for raw material transitions and strategy to meet our sustainability initiative. Grew from 0 to 25% of styles in 2021 and with bold goal of 80% for 2023.

Trusted advisor to cross functional partners influencing decision making on how to manage their liabilities yet maintain agility to grow their business by creative usage plans and solving problems. • Created standard operating procedure & tools to ensure the success and accountability of this unique role in the organization. This allowed to efficiently manage, collaborate and communicate information to educate and on-board a diverse group of cross functional partners. • Maximized fabric and mill productivity by providing detailed data hindsight’s to influence future product development which led to a reduction in fabrics by 36% in apparel while maintaining fabric diversity.

Lead the production and sourcing of the $595M bra business and $73M swim business to ensure growth in partnership with domestic team and supply chain. • Improved yearly harmonized projections process to ensure a diverse vendor allocation strategy that met the capacity needs and protected margin. • Hired and managed multiple associates and through feedback, coaching and focus on performance and development was able to retain 100% of top talent and help them achieve their career goals.

Strategized on building process to help evolve the $530M panty business as well as built strong inter-department relationships through clear communication. • Developed strategies that reduced raw material ownership as well as reduced liability by half from $2M to $1M in one year by implementing a reconciliation process after orders were placed and training overseas teams on how to manage and be accountable for colored liability. • Spearheaded the transformation of the Instant program by identifying the needs of both the internal team and the supply chain to create a simplified and more efficient weekly process. Awarded the Mast Global Star award for my work on this initiative.

Managed the production of Licensed NFL, MLB and NCAA apparel products and accessories by building strong relationships between PINK, vendors and the licensee to ensure an inclusive partnership and timely approval process based on a carefully curated time and action calendar.

Focused on developing a business strategy that produced a diverse product assortment to drive sales. Small lifestyles and Candy delivered $41 million in volume or 3.5% of total company and +32% sales increase in one year. • Demonstrated strong negotiation skills and was able to reduce costs in one class by $160k for the Holiday season as well as exceed my financial goal by delivering a 70.3% IMU in one year. • Effectively turned around the candy business through innovation and negotiation with vendors delivering 2% sales likes and +63K to plan and beat margin goal by $39K as well as improved deliveries to 90% on time delivery to the DC.

Partnered with buyer to determine strategic vision for the department by evaluating sales and fashion trends while maintaining a balanced assortment; contributing to reach sales of $58 million dollars in 2010. • Took lead of the legwear business using customer trend research to collaborate with design and vendor partners to develop a balanced and profitable product assortment that produced $17 million dollars and +18% dollar likes.

Took a leadership role in the merchandising organization to train and coach a diverse group of new hires to ensure enhanced performance and success. • Consulted with internal cross-functional partners in order to improve processes to drive the company’s business objectives.

Integral part of the Knit and Active team; contributing to reach a sales goal of $196 million dollars by engineering a collection that met margin goals. • Led the purchasing of the graphic tee business within the knit department. From the styles sourced from vendors and internally 89% achieved or exceeded department goal of 64-97% sell thru’s within the first six weeks of selling. Exceeded my goal of 75% markup through skilled negotiations on costing.

Successfully launched Lanebryant.com using a new platform that allowed for a more customer friendly experience. • Communicated and coordinated with merchandising partners to ensure that all merchandise samples were turned in, copy was written, and they were submitted for photo shoot. • Ensuring all products were represented on the site, priced correctly, paired with related products as well as created color swatches; spin sets, and zooms for all products in order to maximize the visual presentation.

Managed seven domestic and overseas vendor accounts from the beginning of the product life cycle through delivery. Ordered, organized, and distributed over 1,000 samples.