Sophie Brown

Achievements: • Established, elevated & refined the colour development process within the Product team, reducing the timeline by 3 months. • Overhauled the colour development process, reducing the sign off date by 50% within the critical path. • Oversaw team budget ensuring that costs met margin & were within overall constraints - delivering trips within Europe & Asia. • Built & maintained strong relationships with international supply bases including partners in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Italy & Spain. • Executed material consolidation to enhance efficiency in line with the business strategy & reducing cost. • Championed team development, progression & education both internally & externally - proactively retaining talented colleagues by recognising talent through development plans & annual performance reviews. • Built & extracted colour & trim libraries onto PLM ensuring that all data was accurate & up to date, enabling the creation of material toolboxes for effective planning & negotiation. • Coordinated & refreshed the bulk approval process, ensuring that all submits met the required brand standards - working with mills to resolve challenges & issues if & when required. • Led the initiation, sign off and ownership of the Rapha High Vis Pink pantone to streamline colour matching & brand handwriting. Responsibilities: • Fostered close working relationships with Design, Engineering, Brand Creative & Supply Chain throughout the development process, creating a positive and energetic work environment. • Delivered newness & innovation within the colour & trim space whilst managing NDA's & potential patents, balancing creativity with commercial considerations. • Partnered with suppliers through travel & frequent communication – ensuring that the critical path dates & KPIs were met by the business' vendors. • Commercialised new colour and trim developments in line with CP deadlines, creative direction & product strategy. • Responsible for building & maintaining effective & successful relationships with external partners to develop and negotiate the best cost price & quality standards within the trim & hardware space. • Work closely with supply chain & sustainability Manager to share insights & data in relation to partner practices & audits. • Partnered with key business stakeholders to develop & issue monthly reports - in relation to PFAS switch out & US / UK legislation. • Managed material switch outs for recycled yarns & cost increase, ensuring that relevant databases were up to date.

• Researched & presented material trends & innovations led by trade shows & material fairs as well as vendor visits. • Commercialised new colour and trim developments in line with CP deadlines, creative direction & product strategy. • Responsible for building & maintaining effective & successful relationships with external partners to develop and negotiate the best cost price & quality standards within the trim & hardware space. • Worked alongside the product engineering team to upload & sign off care labels pre production.

• On boarded new suppliers, ensuring that all supplier info & data was up to date. • Assisted with seasonal collection research based on new concepts liaising with European fabric mills daily, actioning new developments & research based on the design team's creative aesthetic. • Prepared & maintained all fabric boards for outerwear, tailoring, prints & softs for Design & Product development - enabling a successful fabric to sketch launch. .

• Raised all fabric orders on the internal PLM system & set up new suppliers, raw material & colour codes as required. • Tracked bulk submissions – checking width, colour, handle & weight. Approved alongside the Fabric buyer & Designer when necessary. Updating excel spreadsheets daily. • Reviewed all invoices & packing lists, negotiating discounts & raising debit notes where applicable.