Rupa Hukkeri

• Responsible for retail P&L (Brands and Private label )- contributing to Top line/bottom line sales growth, strive for a 60-65 % margin.
• Drove year-over-year business growth while leading design, buying and technical with strategic vision and long-range planning.
• Analyzed market trends and competitor activities to create competitive advantages
• Provided strategic oversight of marketing and promotional campaigns to keep campaigns aligned with overall goals and objectives.
• Set and drive operational standards to ensure all standards are met and maintained regarding merchandise presentations, staff training.
• Enacted contingency plans, escalated and directed system problems and issues and participated in post-mortem analysis to provide input for process improvements.
• Partner with visual merchandise team to ensure stores are consistently merchandised to drive sales.
• Formulated policies and procedures to streamline operations.
• Manage, monitor, coach/develop and evaluate the performance of managers to ensure consistency of product knowledge, business strategy and sales alignment.

Key success:

• Category growth by 120%
• Increase in Private Label share from 19% to 30%

• Led the Women's and Girls Athleisure and Activewear Design, Product development , Sourcing and Merchandising team.
• Strengthened the Jockey women's product profile of the five portfolio brands ( Athleisure, Essentials , Move, Relax and USA originals )
• Introduced relevant trend, colours and silhouette direction to boost advantage in the Jockey Girls ( children ) market.
• Analyzed market and sales feedback to identify areas of improvement and develop product re-engineering and cost solutions.
• Tracked trends and suggested enhancements to both challenge and refine product offerings in the basic and essential categories.
• Established strong vendor base and capacity management.
• Mentored and motivated team members to achieve challenging business goals.

Key success:

• Launch of Women's and Girls athleisure category
• Launch of Women's performance wear label "Move"
• Contribution growth by 22%.

• Managed supply chain process, from order placement to delivery, to facilitate on-time and accurate fulfillment.
• Created and maintained portfolio of qualified vendors to expand options.
• Developed and tracked metrics to measure supplier performance and cost savings.
• Influence the product development team to ensure line plans meet overall brand vision, objectives and assessing the performance of products – sales, customer response/perception, profits, competition and market acceptance.
• Oversee the collection, analysis and utilization of market research and intelligence to make recommendations that enable the brand to grow.
• Drive the pricing strategy and smooth operation with supplier partners.
• Lead the customer care team and logistics to ensure seamless consumer experience.

• Generated new business through strategic planning, research , range architecture and Option plan.
• Led the development of seasonal and long-range product strategy.
• Co-ordinated with Brand marketing team to plan programs and promos that raised brand awareness and engagement.
• Analyzed and evaluated opportunities to drive consumer growth and loyalty.
• Worked closely with Finance team to manage channel & margin mix to deliver brand revenue.
• Capacity planning with manufacturing units and placement strategies.
• Co-ordination with team technicians and Quality assurance for better and timely execution.

Key success:

• Increase in Private Label share in Lingerie from 30 to 55%.
• Launched "Zelocity", the active wear brand by Zivame.

• Sourced garment manufacturing units, fabric mills and trim suppliers.
• Established strong vendor relationships to maintain and support business.
• Researched current industry trends and competitor activity to stay abreast of resources, technology and best practices and liaise with buying teams from Dusseldorf for order placements.
• Capacity planning with manufacturing units.
• Planning and monitoring production timeline.
• Co-ordination with team technicians and Quality assurance for better and timely execution.

Key success:

• Growth in India business in Women's category from $11Million to $80-95Million in the period of 2years.
• Given additional business unit - C & A China and made responsible for Sri-Lanka market.

• Handled and finalized Costing inquiries, product development for Gymboree Kids Knitwear and Woven wear.
• Sourcing , developing and training garment manufacturing units.
• Capacity planning with manufacturing units and working out placement strategies to liaise with buying teams.
• Planning and monitoring production timeline.

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• Product development in collaboration with PD team for women's wear.
• Handled costing inquiries, order finalizations along with development samples.
• Teamed with technical executives to analyze and design production feasible techniques.
• Collaborated with customers, partners and internal constituencies to ensure successful implementation of bulk orders

Customer: Target with AMC, Delhi; JJILL with Gokaldas Images, USA; Abercrombie and Fitch.

• Product development and sourcing.
• Worked with in-house designers for New Design collection of Garments, Fabrics, Trims and Accessories for every season.
• Co-ordination with factories on production issues and follow up.
• Planning T and A and bulk order follow up.

Customer: GAP and OLD NAVY with GAP INC, Delhi and Bangalore.