Drapers Next Generation 2016

In nearly five years of Drapers Interviews, I have never had an interviewee send me the brief for the shoot before, but Thomas Pink chief operating officer Erica Vilkauls is out to prove a point. Gone are the days when merchandisers were metaphorically chained to their desks number-crunching, she says. Instead, developments in data and analytics have brought them closer to the customer, and demand an even greater understanding of shopping behaviour.

“If we had done this interview when I started, or even a few years ago, we’d have been in an office and I would have had my calculator and PC as props,” says Vilkauls, as we dodge shoppers and the occasional child photo-bomber in central London’s South Molton Street just days before Christmas. “This is what merchandising is. It is customer-centric. It is out here with them, and wherever the customer is, the merchandiser has to follow.”

And for young people starting out in their fashion careers, now is the best time to get into merchandising: “If I look at what the job is now compared with what it was before, it is very different. Merchandising was the support function at the end and now the difference is data. We have CRM [customer relationship management] data, and that is the gold dust. When I was a merchandiser, I had my sales history and I planned on that. I’d known what had sold, but I didn’t know what customers wanted from me.” This means merchandising is more creative and customer-facing than it ever has been, she adds.

Vilkauls would know: her glittering career spans more than 30 years.

“I didn’t go to university – it wasn’t a prerequisite for a good job then. I left school with fairly decent A-levels aged 18 and, whereas lots of people went to university not knowing what they wanted to do, for some reason I was certain I wanted to go into retail,” she explains, as she checks her notes – a merchandiser always does their homework, clearly.

She sought out a management training scheme at a department store, looking at Barkers and Harrods before settling on Dickins & Jones in 1981. The department store was rebranded by owner House of Fraser in 2007. Vilkauls joined the management training scheme at its former flagship on Regent Street as a sales assistant, with the aim of becoming a buyer. Working across many different functions, she attended the College of Distributive Trades in Leicester Square one day a week, where she learned skills such as marketing.

She spent five years at Dickins & Jones, where she says she gained a great understanding of retail and worked her way up to assistant buyer. However, she adds that buyers were very established and seldom moved on, limiting career progression. So, in 1985, she decided to take a step back and become an allocator at the Burton Group.

“I went from having people reporting to me and being a manager to starting again. I didn’t know anything about merchandising, but that is where the openings were,” she laughs. Burton Group, or Arcadia as it is now known, was and is known for its solid training.

“They are probably the best and I still look for people with Arcadia training when I am recruiting,” she says. “It was a competitive environment, but you moved through the ranks if you were good and there were lots of young people – just the place to be when you are in your early 20s and in central London.” Vilkauls was part of the Arcadia team that set up branded sportswear fascia Champion Sports in 1987.

However, she says it was very desk-based and focused on numbers and spreadsheets, seldom speaking about the customer. By 1993, having risen to senior merchandiser, a wave of redundancies left her feeling “the heart had gone”.

Looking for a business that was doing something different, she landed a job at Mothercare as senior merchandiser in 1993, where she says American CEO Ann Iverson was creating an interesting proposition. However, what they did not have was the Burton Group’s systems, so she took on the challenge of working with IT to create standard reports that could be delivered every Monday for trading meetings.

“Before that people were just going through paper, spending 90% of their time gathering data, and 10% using it,” she says. Vilkauls progressed to head of planning – a broader role that helped her learn how to work with different personalities and, crucially, how to deliver information in a way they wanted it.

“One of the key skills in merchandising is getting along with people and having empathy. Sitting back and thinking: ‘Who is this information for?’ taught me an awful lot.”

She left in 1997, and her next big role was House of Fraser’s head of supplier management in 1999.

“What I decided to do at this point and what I would advise people to do is widen their knowledge base. I had been in merchandising the whole time, and I went to House of Fraser so I could look at supplier management, supply chain and logistics,” she says. “At the time the warehouse was at a bit of a standstill. They didn’t understand what was going on in the office, and vice versa. So I introduced forecasting, because it is important the warehouse knows what is coming in and when.”

This understanding of other people’s roles is critical to being a good merchandiser, she says, adding that she always makes her merchandisers spend a day working in the warehouse.

As well as introducing forecasting, she also worked on the launch of House of Fraser’s intranet, to allow suppliers to manage their own accounts.

Vilkauls’ desire to learn new skills led her to leave for lingerie etailer Figleaves.com in 2003 as a buying and merchandising consultant for four months: “I had bricks-and-mortar experience, but this really turned the way I thought about stock and space on its head. It was probably a side-step career-wise but, in terms of my learning and making me a well-rounded manager, it was a massive step forward for me.”

In September John Lewis came knocking. One of the last big retailers to separate the merchandising function from its buying department, Vilkauls could not resist the challenge and became head of merchandising/business lead of change management.

“What an opportunity,” she recalls. “I was never going to get that opportunity again. We really needed to focus on stock management and margins, so we redid the buyer job descriptions and created merchandising roles. I learnt so much about change management and how to go about it differently with different stakeholders.” The process took about two years, during which she also worked on getting the right systems in place, selecting vendor Oracle. However, once change was implemented, Vilkauls did not want to just be head of merchandising.

Hungry for a fresh venture, she joined LK Bennett as buying and merchandising director in 2006: “It was a unique opportunity to come and work for an owner-run business with Linda Bennett, completely different from, and more dynamic than, the corporate environments I had worked for. I have tried to make each career move about learning something new, rather than chasing money or status.

“She taught me a huge amount and it was one of the first businesses I worked for where we spoke about the customer all the time. Linda knew her customer inside out, and taught me: ‘Don’t deviate from what they want because they won’t forgive you and they won’t come back’.” Vilkauls restructured design, product development and buying and merchandising, helped ready the business for international expansion and managed its sale to Robert Bensoussan in 2009.

She stayed on for six months during the transition, but then left and set up Spaldo Consulting – an amalgam of her seven-year-old dog Aldo’s name and his breed, Spinone: “I thought to myself: ‘I have had all of these challenges and I have done all of these things. What do I want to do next?’ I had learned that I liked turning a bad situation in a business into a good one, so decided I could do that for different retailers.”

Clients since then have included Jacques Vert Group and brands A Wear and Animal. Thomas Pink was her latest project, joining as interim chief operating officer in 2014, and taking up the post full-time in August last year.

“It’s a great brand that should be much bigger than it is – so that’s the challenge and why I am here,” she says. Vilkauls started off looking after buying and merchandising and is now also responsible for product development and production, merchandising and buying, IT, logistics and warehousing.

“What’s great about this role is it is wide and varied. A career in merchandising is ideal grounding for a COO role, as it encompasses the entire supply chain.”

Mary Anderson-Ford, managing director of merchandising recruitment specialist AquaRetail, says: “Erica has had a highly impressive career so far, and I think that many of today’s merchandisers can learn a lot from the path she’s taken. As was the case with many of her successful contemporaries, she cut her teeth at the Burton Group – that sort of training early on in someone’s career is absolutely invaluable to learn the rudiments of the role.”

Anderson-Ford adds that her implementation of merchandising at John Lewis “helped them really hit the stratosphere”.

Still, Vilkauls, 54, has more to achieve: “I don’t think I’ll ever retire. I just can’t see me wanting to stop this incredible journey. I hope my next stop is CEO of a great brand that I can expand and make hugely profitable. Then maybe think about the beach.”

Design - Drawing on a spectrum of experience

A successful designer needs to be passionate, driven and thick-skinned, as well as possessing an eye for trend and colour, and a tenacious approach to range building, says Salma Sodawala, managing consultant (design, technical, production and sales) at Henry Fox Recruitment.

Work experience during a design degree is essential, as is continually updating your portfolio with work from your current role and personal projects.

“To stand out you need to translate inspiration, catwalks and street style into wearable pieces,” says Sodawala. “To create a successful range, you must also understand garment design and be ready to get heavily involved in sourcing.”

Coast creative director Neil Hendy looks for a blend of creativity and commerciality when hiring new recruits: “I’m interested in the creative process of how the designer’s mind works. I want to be blown away by the visuals, but I also want people to hit the ground running, so they need the technical skills to understand how a garment goes together.”

Beginning as a design assistant, salaries start at £16,000 and reach £150,000 for a design or creative director. Although the design hierarchy tends to be standardised across fashion retailers, Sodawala is seeing new roles emerging as design departments are being broken down to make the ranges more manageable, and designers moving into specialist roles to focus on areas such as print or knitwear.

To climb the career ladder, you must immerse yourself in the creative world, Hendy advises: “The role is really rewarding, but it’s very competitive at every level. You’ve got to be proactive and look at what other people are doing so you’re armed with as much knowledge as possible.

“You’ve also got to keep yourself creatively stimulated. Explore all the different levels from own label, luxury, high street and value retail to designing for manufacturers. Ask to move departments to gain a broader experience, which shows the aptitude to be promoted.”

Merchandising - Degrees of psychology

Whereas traditionally merchandising was based on maths and analytical skills, today retailers are looking for merchandisers who have an understanding of consumer psychology, believes managing director of merchandising specialist recruitment agency AquaRetail Mary Anderson-Ford: “Those maths/business/finance degrees are no longer set in stone. Now retailers are looking for degrees with modules covering statistical analysis and data manipulation, such as history, geography, sociology and psychology.

“And with the rise of the buying and merchandising courses at the London College of Fashion and Fashion Retail Academy there are a variety of entry points,” she adds.

Abigail Benjamin, head of merchandising at The Outnet, agrees that having a maths degree is not essential for merchandisers today: “There is actually really strong merit in understanding how people think. Success in merchandising comes from the capability to think creatively and strategically about projects, coupled with the willingness to learn.”

The merchandising path usually begins at merchandising administrative assistant level, earning £18,000 to £25,000, climbing to merchandiser on a wage of £50,000 and ultimately to director level salaries of £140,000-plus.

“If you’ve managed your career effectively, you should be earning £50,000 after eight years and £100,000 at around 15 years,” says Anderson-Ford. “I would always advise against a long stint where there hasn’t been any development, but five years in one company where you’ve been promoted or moved to a bigger department is excellent.”

Benjamin agrees that new recruits should learn to pace themselves: “The temptation is to want to do everything, but you need breadth and width. Merchandising is becoming more agile and collaborative. Every day I speak to the technical, buying, marketing and social teams, so communication skills are key. Ultimately, you need to focus on being commercial and delivering for the business.”

A “new wave” of ecommerce, branch and international merchandising roles are emerging, which typically earn 10% less than core merchandisers. So, an assistant branch merchandiser would start on £25,000, rather than £28,000. These non-core roles are catching up, however, says Anderson-Ford, who believes multichannel retailers are starting to recognise their importance for growth.

Buying - Commercial values rule

Buyers are becoming more commercial because of the pressures of multichannel retailing, although product is still king, argues Harveen Gill, managing director of recruitment specialist HGA Group: “It doesn’t matter which channel – if the product isn’t right, it won’t sell.

“So, while being commercial, buyers still need to have that inspiration. As well as knowing how to range build and work out price architecture, it is becoming more important that buyers understand supply chains, sourcing and costing. Also a holistic business approach is key.”

Keeping abreast of world affairs is crucial, as is becoming an expert in the issues that affect fashion retail. Although having a degree is important, to stand out, retailers are looking for buyers who have had internships or shown extra initiative such as blogging.

From his experience as buying manager at Topman and York-based indie Sarah Coggles (now closed), Adam Jagger, retail director of Leeds-based concept store Lambert’s Yard believes an understanding of the customer is crucial: “For an independent I find all the best buyers have come from the shop floor. So, when hiring junior staff, I look for a broad selection of taste and being able to understand the customer. As a buyer at an indie you have to be a jack of all trades. We’re buyers, merchandisers, digital marketing and customer service all rolled into one.”

Wages start at £18,000 for an administrative assistant, rising to £180,000 to £200,000 for a buying director. As seen at River Island and Arcadia, an emerging role is sourcing director or manager, who is responsible for costing suppliers, margins, pricing and ensuring due diligence has been carried out.

“Younger buyers tend to move within a year to 18 months, but the pace of change can stop people becoming grounded,” says Gill. “You need to learn to cope with the setbacks and moving too often can also be seen as a lack of gravitas.”

Jagger advises young buyers to take a realistic view of the role: “You need to realise that there is a lot of admin and it’s not all Paris runway shows. To progress to buying director you need to learn to communicate with every department. It may be easy for the buying team to get your ideas, but if the finance guys don’t then you could be stuck.”

Ecommerce - The next generation

Ecommerce teams must be flexible to adapt to the pace of change, so a willingness to learn is key, says Jonathan Hall, chief executive of ecommerce recruitment consultancy Cranberry Panda: “For online marketing roles, employers like a digital-focused marketing degree, whereas for analytics and insight roles they prefer maths, science or even archaeology degrees.”

In the last two years ecommerce-specific courses have started up, such as Teesside University’s BSc in Digital Strategy Development or Dundee University’s BSc in International Business with Ecommerce, although graduates have yet to arrive in the market.

Having started in merchandising, Karen Millen digital director Charlotte Ellis understands the different “ecommerce generations”: “The first generation typically comes from an alternative background, such as buying or design, whereas the second generation have chosen to specialise in ecommerce at university. We have a blend of both in our team.”

Ecommerce salaries range from £18,000 for an ecommerce assistant to £40,000 for a customer experience manager, rising to £250,000-plus for an ecommerce director. Retailers are increasingly focusing on user experience (UX) and insight roles, with personalisation the real sector to watch.

“Team structures will change next year as a result of the focus on UX, optimisation and personalisation,” says Hall. “Over the next three to five years it will become harder to get natural growth out of ecommerce, so retailers will have to optimise their traffic by creating a seamless customer journey through personalisation.”

Ellis agrees that while the team should focus on the end-to-end omnichannel experience, ecommerce is becoming more focused: “Over the next three years I see roles becoming more specialised. Key areas will be around traffic and acquisition, from generating content to looking at SEO and then ultimately retention and customer communication.”

In 2014, the UK fashion industry made a direct contribution of £26bn to the economy – up from £21bn in 2009 – supporting 797,000 jobs, global forecasting consultancy Oxford Economics reports.

When most people consider a career in the fashion industry, they tend to think of “front of house” roles, such as design, buying or retail. Less is known about the technical roles, such as pattern graders, cutters, technicians and machinists, that manufacturers, retailers and brands need to fill. Although there has been a significant decline in UK manufacturing over the past 40 years, there is a reduced, but still sizeable, industry operating, and these skills are very much in demand, not least because they are now so hard to find.

It is hard to ascertain the exact proportion of people employed in these roles from the 800,000 or so working in the fashion sector (as estimated by Oxford Economics), but there are notable examples of this demand. The north London factory of not-for-profit social enterprise Fashion Enter started with eight workers in 2008, and now employs 84 people, supplying retailers such as Asos.com and Marks & Spencer. Meanwhile, in November 2015, Burberry announced plans to invest £50m in a new factory in Leeds, expecting to create employment for more than 1,000 people. So for those seeking technical and manufacturing careers in the sector, there is cautious optimism.

“There is some drift of companies looking at the UK and I really believe this will continue, especially with costs rising in places like China,” says Ian Scott, non-executive chairman at organic clothes brand Frugi and former head of technology and procurement at Marks & Spencer. “It is certainly happening at the higher end of the sector and hopefully this will continue.”

In addition to rising costs in the East, other factors are influencing this shift.

Matthew Vohs, founder of fashion retail recruiter Vohs & Co, says the ability to get products delivered in four weeks, instead of six to eight weeks, is a key consideration, while British provenance also has strong consumer appeal: “If you look at woven goods, where fabric has been converted from UK fabric mills into garments, you get a lot of ‘Made in England’ now,” he says.

These small but encouraging signs of growth means strong demand for a range of skills, from quality controllers to machinists, pattern cutters, graders and technologists. Scott says openings are appearing, particularly in designer clothing. Cornwall-based Frugi, for example, has an online retail business, 400 stockists across Europe and turnover of £6m. It employs around 60 staff.

“Their manufacturing may be overseas, but the design, buying and technical development is done in Cornwall,” says Scott. “They are always looking for new talent in the technical area – at the moment they are looking for senior garment technologists.”

It is a role Salma Sodawala, managing consultant at fashion and retail employment agency Henry Fox Recruitment, says is hard to fill: “A lot of people think they can do the job of garment technologist, but they are often not used to working at the pace required.”

Karen Millen production director Fay Tear concurs, explaining that the role of a CMT (cut, make, trim) garment technologist involves working closely with the pattern cutter and advising the factory on issues such as stitch tension.

“But, most importantly, our garment technologists are the communications tool between our designers in the UK and our suppliers, who are predominantly in the Far East,” she says. “They ensure that the fit and the quality are consistent with Karen Millen’s standards.”

Tear adds that garment technologists at Karen Millen need around 10 years’ experience in the role: “They will also have had college experience and then gone into industry, and they will have worked for another premium brand.”

Pattern cutting is another skill much in demand, but it is a role that can vary according to the way each factory works, as Sodawala explains: “Some will work manually and some will work on Gerber [a US software package] systems or Lectra [a French software package] systems, while some will work flat, literally creating [a pattern] on the table.”

Iwona Lenartowicz is a senior digital pattern cutter with women’s designer label Roland Mouret. She previously worked as a freelance pattern cutter, learning how to use the Gerber system, and believes opportunities for pattern cutters in the UK are plentiful and varied: “With branded and designer labels you get to be more creative, using both draping methods on the mannequin to digitising and then developing on the computers and toiling,” she says.

Bernice Miller founded pattern-cutting and design service Creative Fashion Services in February 2015 and expects her team of three to double in the next year. Her customers are independent brands and designers such as Caroline Beyll, Lueji and GR LondonParis.

She says pattern cutting is a skill that takes years to develop: “Basic knowledge is important and can be attained from studying a pattern-cutting course at college or university.”

Experience is also key: “We find it very difficult to help people who haven’t had at least a year’s placement,” says Sodawala. “If the option is there to get a placement year, take it. The experience is invaluable.”

Lenartowicz agrees: “Try to work with different types of companies to find the right level for you, and work on multi-products to find your niche.” She adds that learning the Gerber system is “the future”.

Tear says pattern graders – who ensure that each style fits across all sizes and is consistent – are also highly sought after: “It is a very technical and complicated role. They take all the pattern pieces within one garment and grade it. Every size has to look perfectly proportioned, including any styling details.”

As with other technical roles, experience is key, but so are interpersonal skills: “Some people have the technical skills for these roles but they don’t have the people or professional skills,” says Tear. “You are working in a business environment, in teams, and you have to be able to build relationships – sometimes that can be quite a challenging combination.”

There are also more niche roles available. Johnstons of Elgin manufactures cashmere, woollens and knitwear at its mills in Hawick and Elgin, Scotland, for its own brand and customers such as Jaeger and The White Company. It employs just under 1,000 people, of whom 200 have joined in the last two years. One of its key roles is a technical dyer, responsible for ensuring that materials are dyed to the required shade. The company has two trainee technical dyers, as three members of the team are approaching retirement.

“It is vital that we have the right people fully trained to take over these roles,” says chief executive Simon Cotton, adding that candidates need excellent colour vision, qualifications in both chemistry and physics, and an aptitude for mathematics. “[Our trainees] are studying for a qualification from the Society of Dyers and Colourists, and at the end of four or five years they will have a degree-equivalent qualification. After three to four years’ training, they should be able to run a shift by themselves.”

Johnstons of Elgin is proof that the fashion industry is not solely based in London and Manchester – opportunities are widespread.

“In Leicester you have the Next buying team, but there are also a large number of manufacturers in the Leicester and Nottingham area that supply fast fashion retailers,” says Frugi’s Scott. He also highlights Northampton’s shoe industry, where Church’s and Barker are based, and the southwest, home to clothing label Seasalt and surf brands such as Finisterre, as well as Frugi. “The opportunities are out there,” he says.

Sodawala agrees, adding Derby to the list as a big knitwear producer: “Factories are starting to open up in these areas again.”

And persistence is key to climbing the ladder, says Tear: “Get your foot through that door, talk to everyone you can and have a great ‘can do’ attitude. That is your way in.”