Krisha Patel

Managing 5 Business Units across Sports & Lifestyle with leading Global Brands: NIKE / JD SPORTS / SSS / UNDER ARMOUR / COLUMBIA / NORTH FACE / TIMBERLAND / VANS / NEW ERA

• Reporting to Senior VP | 8 Direct reports | Team of 60 VM

Key Responsibilities

• Ensure products are presented to support the business as one branded house that will connect to its target consumers, through focusing on the identity as an authentic Lifestyle retailer
• Managing 375 stores across UAE / GCC / EGYPT
• Provide VM overview on every seasonal launch. This will cover the overall expectation of every category, and the story telling of each store focus as a whole
• Create Visual Merchandising Guidelines & processes that will support store display maintenance, store openings & Re-fit stores
• Analyse store commercial reports to plan ahead VM changes, and make better commercial decisions
• Partner with the Buying & Planning teams to plan assortments to space and ensure display presentation strategies supports the overall business direction
• Partner with the Retail Brand Marketing team to align our overall retail marketing strategies to strengthen brand identity
• Actively take a lead in new store openings & Re-fit stores, working closely with Buying, Operations and Space planning teams
• Continuously train and mentor VM & Store teams on brand initiatives, Visual standards, product knowledge, & seasonal launch guidelines
• Recruited Trained & Developed new visual merchandising associates.

BEYOND THE BEACH / NEW ERA / RIP CURL / OAKLEY / TOMMY BAHAMA / SEAFOLLY

Key Achievements

• Defined & implementing a creative visual merchandising strategy, that leads the customer through the entire store
• Prepared & executed visual merchandising signages, providing solutions to specific marketing requirement & managed all promotional events
• Created VM guidelines for all brands to deliver product presentation display consistency across all stores
• Worked with Buying & Operations department, in developing ways to increase inventory through merchandising store capacity and load
• Managed VM budget & track costs & expense
• Analysed commercial reports to identify opportunities, & prepare appropriate strategies to promote sales
• Continuously trained store staff & VM on product presentation standards & execution of VM Guidelines

Successfully, opened the first ever Victoria's Secret store in UK.

I was accountable for leading the brand team to fit out the 2012 Olympic flagship store in Stratford. One of my key responsibilities was to drive results by developing and executing the companies' Brand Guidelines, by implementing both short term and long-term strategies.

Through an effective merchandising strategy, I was able to maximise the efficiency of the store. This store went on to achieve £26million (turnover) in the first year