Manager Supply Chain

SAPNA ARORA

** *** ***** ****, *** Delhi- ******; Email: **************@*******.*** Tel: - 26866760 / 995-***-****

SUMMARY

• Apparel buying, product development, sourcing and supply chain professional with more than 10 -year’s international experience in the apparel industry.

• 8 years experience in supplier management, negotiating partnerships and new product development with focus and understanding of product safety issues.

• Rich experience in global sourcing, costing, garment construction, manufacturing and range building and driving growth.

• Strong quantitative, analytical, problem solving skills with proven cost and lead-time reduction initiatives with in-depth understanding of quotas and classification categories.

• Rich experience in sourcing for both US and EU markets, on woven, knitwear and jersey wear product for ladies, children and men’s wear

• Years of experience in Ethical Trading and Code of Conduct.

EDUCATION

2002 - 2003 Nottingham Trent University Nottingham, UK

BA(Hons) International fashion business

Passed with 2:1

2000-2002 National Institute of Fashion technology -Part time New Delhi, India

Diploma in Fashion & Textiles Management

2001-2002 APTECH – part time New Delhi, India

Diploma in CAD

Proficient in the following software’s- Microsoft word, Excel, power point, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Tex design, Macromedia poser, Vision, Adobe Premiere Macromedia Director, Macromedia Flash, Character studio, Spin suite, Bryce, Elastic reality, 3d studio Max

1998- 1999 Pearl Academy of Fashion New Delhi, India

Diploma in Textiles

EXPERIENCE

Feb 2008 – July 2011– Indochine Hangzhou, China

Parent company: - Forever New (Australia) & new look (buying office)

Office Manager

6 months contract

• Responsible for setting up a new office for other UK retailers

• Introduced new customers to the company like Dunnes, Primark.

• Product development – trend reports, sourcing new fabrics & trims, setting up the sampling room etc. Making sure samples sent to the customers are perfect.

• Also responsible for sourcing new factory’s, price negotiation with the factory & customer.

• Managed a team of people in product development, merchandising, logistics etc.

• Managed to set up the complete system for the new office & it is now running smoothly.

August 2006 – Feb 2008 - Delta Galil Europe Ltd Kings Cross, London

Account Executive

• Taking full accountability of the customer liaising with designers, merchandisers, logistics & suppliers overseas.

• Responsible for negotiating prices with the factory and agreeing the prices with the customer, overseeing the team from order placement to delivery.

• Based on market research and analysis for upcoming trends and attend trade fairs and buying meetings in Europe.

• Responsible for building ranges for the customer with the designers, chasing the buying samples, order processing, communicating with the factories overseas to ensure product is delivered to the customer door on time.

• Critical path management.

• Constantly having work meetings & flow meetings with the customer & with the teams.

• Build strong relationship with the customer and ensure all their expectations are met.

• Visited fairs for like Bread & butter, premiere vision, & visiting sourcing fairs like ken fair, Hong Kong, Canton fair etc every year to be in line with trends & for sourcing new factories/ suppliers.

• Managing team of people & factories overseas.

July 2005 –July 2006– Fila Watford, London

Sourcing Manager

12 Months contract

• Responsible for setting up and managing sourcing bases in Turkey, China, Hong Kong, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Romania etc for managing smaller quantity, quicker turnaround styles riding on trends for fillers in fast fashion ranges all that at fast speed and competitive prices based on the ethical code of conduct as specified by Fila. And also managing the existing suppliers depending upon the performance.

• Educating the product teams to ensure the business fully exploits new and existing opportunities (e.g. quota, duty, country specifics, payment terms, etc)

• Manage Supplier information and continue to build the Sourcing department with all types of supplier information. Also managing the Supplier Assessment system and offer high level of service to the Buying teams

• Responsible for negotiating & finalising the prices with the suppliers/ factories.

• Currently taking full responsibility of all aspects of live orders (orders in production or going into production).

• Critical Path Management, PROACTIVE weekly meetings highlighting delays / production problems/ issues to team

• Control & Manage the Margin sheets of all lines prior to proceeding with production

• Market trips looking at relevant brands, educating supply base on new make / constructions or move on in terms of product in the market place

• Allocating product with suppliers for the best results in terms of the product / price & delivery

• Clear understanding of all Quality requirements for all Key Accounts.

• Currently managing a variety of internal and external meetings – to include running and facilitating workshops, conferences etc.

• Spend 60% of my time traveling and sourcing new factories / agents for the company

June 2002- July 2005 – Sports & Soccer / S&B Ltd Park Royal, London

Senior Merchandiser / Account Manager

• Responsible for liasing with customers from product development, price negotiation, order placement till delivery – following this with team of 10 people.

• Handling the buying, sourcing and production department of the company. Managing a business of GBP15million in a mix of LDP & FOB.

• Very familiar with Asia and far east, have been visiting factories knowledgeable with regards to the different cultures, what factories are capable of in terms of ability, price, delivery times etc.

• Strong technical and product know-how - especially for garments and fabrics- jerseys and woven and handle my own price negotiations, manage the critical path very tightly, holds twice a week meetings internally and with suppliers, have all the suppliers feed information directly into critical path spreadsheets. Maintains good and close relationships with all the suppliers, and also have experience of sourcing new suppliers and well versed with the international code of conduct for manufacturing very well.

• Was promoted to account manager & was handling my own price negotiations etc within 6 months of being in a company.

• Spent 40% of my time traveling checking out production etc and tackling all Social compliance issues.

2000- 2002 Modellama exports - INTERNSHIP Delhi, India

Merchandiser

• Managed key initiatives to reduce lead times, sampling turnaround time and prices. Delivered increasingly better quality performance on all lines as compared to previous seasons. Responsible for chasing samples, order processing, communication with the factory managers, QA, overseas clients.

EXTRA CURRICULARS

• Articles published on apparel sourcing, manufacturing and supply chain management in leading global industry journals like ‘Apparel Online’ and www.just-style.com .

• Visiting Faculty at NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology), Delhi (Affiliated to FIT, New York and Nottingham Trent University) – Taught in the areas of CAD, global sourcing etc.

• In depth understanding of country wise requirements on testing standards and ethical trading practices involved in producing a product which meet global standards.

Consultancy Projects:

• 2003 - Fiction Clothing Ltd Park Royal, London

Explored viability of Bangladesh and India markets for speed sourcing high-end jersey product traditionally coming out of Turkey.

• 2000- S.S Enterprises New Delhi, India

Helped explore the viability of a UK and Milan based design teams to lead product for both EU and US markets and mapped out the process flow.

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