Matthew Mountain

After a year with the business I was promoted to Assistant buyer; jumping Buying Assistant and given responsibility for the buy of a £22million category in Garden Non Power. I was also responsible for buying teams promotional program. Garden non power encompassed all non- electrical garden orientated products and covered over 300 skus with international and domestic sourcing. Circa 70% seasonal category. 22 pages, branded and own label product. Liason with international sourcing and other key buying functions. I introduced additional market leading brands such as Wilkinson Sword and Stanley. Grew the category by 8% against an economic downturn and tightened consumer spending. Resourced to reliable suppliers and developed a strong rapport across the supply base. Following a round of selections on Garden Non Power I was moved on to buying Luggage, a £50milion category with a number of supply base issues. I developed trust and a respect across the supply base enhancing stocking. I promoted a number of domestic supplies to provide intermediary substitute stock and rewarded the reliable and exited from the unreliable. I turned around an emergency selection within a month of moving on to the range. Year on Year I achieved cat launch growth of 9% and MAT growth of 4%. I continued to manage the team’s promotional campaign across a breadth of seasonal categories. I was also given responsibility for the entire category’s marketing budget ensuring we balanced our expenditure with our marketing revenues.

As an MA I was quickly given additional responsibilities buying smaller categories such as Fire Safety and CCTV. This gave me exposure to buying and an opportunity to interact with the supply base. I completely revamped the CCTV range bringing in a market leading range; I negotiated stronger terms and higher margin product with a structured promotional strategy to coincide with key calendar events. Took the category from £120,000 business to c. £500,000. On fire safety I further developed the supply base introducing online ranging for a competing supplier and strengthening the offer of the incumbent through market leading promotions. I bought these two ranges whilst managing all administrational work for the team and key promotional activity.

Entered the business on the Commercial Trading Graduate Scheme. Following redundancies the scheme was dissolved and I was employed as a Merchandise Assistant.