Manager Africa Export - West Africa at adidas Group

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

• To ensure profitable market share and net sales growth within West Africa while respecting the image of the adidas Group brands
• To passionately assist the Africa Export organisation in identifying, developing and implementing strategies for the profitable growth of the adidas Group brands

Key Responsibilities:

• Support & drive the Market Excellence strategy across; Wholesale, Franchise, Re-distribution, & E-com with your customers relating to VM standards, & overall brand image.
• Drive Franchise door expansion with key partners within the various markets.
• Orderbook Conversion & Management:
• Constant tracking of orderbooks, ensuring customers buys are aligned to category product strategies & stores always have the latest product.
• Analyze risks in terms of poor sell thru and excessive stock forward cover which could translate to overstock situations.
• Utilize mechanisms such as in season trading to assist partners with growth & foster new business opportunities.
• Provide realistic plans & forecasts on customer’s performances seasonally to guide forward season planning.
• Execute adidas strategic objectives across West African markets aligned to Global Market standards, while taking into consideration local West African market nuances.
• Support the negotiation and enforcement of adidas Group trade terms & ensure customer contracts /TT’s and due diligence are always up to date.
• Ensure all customers are segmented in a way that mitigates overtrading & cannibalization of key categories and key franchises.
• Oversee & manage store developments in relevant markets.
• Track overall market conditions including pricing parity & duty structures.
• On boarding of new accounts as the need arises
• Availability to travel to key markets when required.

Key Relationships:

• Direct Report for the Africa West Export Team
• Market: Brands, Customer Service, Sales Coordination, Planning, Logistics, Orderbook Management, Store Development, Finance
• External: Customers, Agencies

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Representative with proven track record of successfully managing accounts and relationships in large sales organizations.
• Strong Analytical skills for Sell Thru analysis, Orderbook Management which will impact business planning and decision making.
• Strong Presentation skills: able to inspire customers by presenting the adidas product and category strategy in a compelling way.
• Strong interpersonal skills: Very good communication and negotiating abilities.
• High degree of commercial and business acumen knowledge (e.g., sales, retail, trade marketing, customer service, finance and controlling)
• Strong decision taking and determination and shows high initiative and pragmatism to the business.

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:

• Relevant Tertiary qualification in business with marketing and sales focus
• Minimum 5 - 6 years of sales experience and managing a key account within large organisations, ideally in apparel/fashion or FMCG
• IT skills – Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Word
• Availability to travel to key markets when required