Merchandising Manager in Gloucester

Merchandising Manager - Premium Fashion Brand

Cheltenham - 1 day WFH per week

£60k circa dependant on experience

Managing team of 3

Interviewing ASAP

LM Recruitment are partnering with a luxury British lifestyle brand for a Merchandising Manager to own the end-to-end merchandising function. This is a high-impact, high-visibility role that combines strategic planning with hands-on delivery. You will drive stock efficiency, lead trading decisions, build scalable processes, and work cross-functionally to support profitable growth. Reporting directly into the COO, you will be a key commercial voice in the business and a pivotal part of their next chapter. If you are commercially sharp, analytically confident, and energised by the pace and ambition of a founder-led brand, we would love to hear from you.

If you think you are the right match for the following opportunity, apply after reading the complete description.
Key Responsibilities:

• Lead seasonal and in-season planning across categories, ensuring stock levels align with sales forecasts and brand strategy.

• Act as the key commercial lead in product and range sign-off meetings, ensuring assortment decisions are financially viable and strategically aligned.

• Develop top-level product assortment strategies, including category mix, depth, and breadth.

• Work alongside the Buying team to manage the balance of newness, continuity, price points, and category spread to support brand positioning and commercial performance.

• Own and manage the Open-to-Buy (OTB) process.

• Monitor performance in-season, leading trading discussions and recommending actions such as repeats, markdowns, or exit strategies.

• Oversee intake and phasing plans to ensure stock flow is aligned to promotional calendars, key drops, and trading moments.

• Oversee the planning, allocation, and replenishment of event stock packages and in-store inventory, ensuring optimal stock levels are maintained.

• Drive strategic markdown planning to optimise sell-through, margin, and inventory efficiency while maintaining brand integrity.

• Lead seasonal store planning and in-season trading to ensure optimal product allocation, space utilisation, and commercial performance across retail locations.

• Build and refine merchandising processes to support business growth and operational efficiency.

• Support or lead the implementation of merchandising tools and systems, including ERP and planning tools.

• Champion data accuracy and process improvement across the function.

• Work closely with Finance to align planning assumptions and margin targets.

• Instil a strong commercial mindset across the team, ensuring all decisions are grounded in data, customer insight, and business impact.

• Collaborate with Buying, E-commerce, Finance, and senior leadership to ensure merchandising is seen as a key commercial driver within the business.

• Provide mentorship, support, and development to junior team members.

Key Competencies/Behaviours:

• Commercially driven with a genuine passion for product and a deep understanding of how merchandising decisions impact the bottom line.

• Analytically confident - comfortable owning data, building frameworks, and translating numbers into clear, actionable decisions.

• Strategic thinker who can also roll their sleeves up and deliver at ground level when needed.

• Excellent communicator, able to present complex commercial information clearly and influence at senior leadership level.

• Highly collaborative, working effectively across Buying, E-commerce, Finance, and Operations to drive joined-up decisions.

• Proactive and solutions-focused, identifying problems and bringing answers rather than questions.

• Comfortable with pace and ambiguity in a fast-moving, founder-led environment where priorities can shift quickly.

• Entrepreneurial mindset, energised by building and improving rather than maintaining the status quo.

Skills & Experience

• Proven experience in merchandising within fashion retail, ideally in a growth or scale-up environment.

• Strong analytical and commercial acumen, with excellent Excel and planning tool proficiency.

• Confident in building and implementing merchandising frameworks, processes, and tools.

• Ability to influence internally, explain logic clearly, and articulate decision-making to executive leadership.

• Experience managing people and/or mentoring junior team members - able to build trust, mentor junior colleagues, and contribute positively to team culture.

• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.

Desired

• Experience working within a luxury, premium, or heritage fashion brand. xiskglj

• Exposure to ERP or merchandising system implementation.

Benefits

• Competitive salary

• 25 Days Holiday plus bank holidays

• Have your Birthday Day off on us to celebrate you

• Increased benefits with length of service (e.g. holiday, pension contributions)

• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity pay

• Generous staff discount and staff shop available

• Fresh fruit and pastries delivered weekly

• Cycle to Work Scheme

• Employee Assistance Programme, including mental health support