Inventory Manager - Retail

The Inventory Manager will be responsible for establishing and maintaining accurate, controlled, traceable, and efficient inventory operations across the retail, wholesale, warehouse, stores, events, Head Office, and logistics network.

The organization currently manages approximately 13,000 active SKUs within the Retail Division and 3,000 active SKUs within the Wholesale Division, with significant operational complexity arising from warehouse organization, inventory discrepancies, transfer orders, event requirements, pull-outs, damaged/obsolete stock, virtual warehouses, gifts/FOCs, WMS transactions, and insufficient inventory planning.

The Inventory Manager will be expected to take ownership of the end-to-end inventory control process, identify the root causes of discrepancies rather than relying on adjustments, establish clear processes and controls, and work closely with Product, Warehouse, Logistics, IT, Stores, and Event teams to ensure that system inventory and physical inventory remain aligned at all times.

The role requires a hands-on manager who can bring discipline, accountability, planning, and structure to the inventory function.

• Take full ownership of the accuracy of physical inventory versus system inventory.
• Establish a robust inventory control mechanism covering receiving, put-away, storage, transfers, issues, returns, pull-outs, damages, gifts, FOCs, adjustments, and stock counts.
• Investigate every material inventory discrepancy and identify the root cause before any adjustment is made.
• Reduce instances where:
• Inventory is available in the system but cannot be physically located.
• Inventory is physically available but not reflected in the system.
• Inventory is transferred in the system but not physically moved.
• Incorrect items or quantities are transferred.
• Establish daily controls for inventory movements and unresolved discrepancies.
• Ensure that all inventory adjustments are properly investigated, documented, approved, and supported.
• Implement cycle counting and regular physical inventory verification based on SKU/value/risk classifications.
• Ensure that all issues identified during stock counts are immediately investigated and closed.

• Take responsibility for improving warehouse organization, storage, identification, accessibility, and traceability.
• Establish clear warehouse locations and a systematic storage methodology for approximately 16,000 active SKUs across retail and wholesale operations.
• Introduce proper bin/location management and ensure that every SKU has a defined and traceable physical location.
• Establish clear segregation of:
• Active inventory
• Damaged inventory
• Obsolete/old inventory
• Returns
• Event inventory
• Hold inventory
• Pending inspection inventory
• Stock awaiting transfer
• Identify and clear old, damaged, obsolete, and untraceable stock occupying warehouse space.
• Establish a mechanism to ensure inventory can be located quickly without unnecessary searching or manual intervention.
• Monitor warehouse utilization and recommend changes to optimize available space.
• Ensure proper labeling, barcoding, PCS identification, box identification, and physical segregation of inventory.

The organization currently has two virtual warehouses, TEMP and HO, which have accumulated untraceable inventory over the years.

The Inventory Manager will:

• Conduct a complete investigation of inventory held in TEMP and HO warehouses.
• Physically trace and validate the stock wherever possible.
• Establish an approved action plan to clear the two virtual warehouses.
• Ensure that TEMP and HO are not used as dumping grounds for unresolved inventory discrepancies in the future.
• Introduce a formal procedure for creation and use of system warehouses.

The Inventory Manager will establish strict governance over the entire Transfer Order lifecycle.

Responsibilities include:

• Validate every TO prepared by the Product Department before execution.
• Confirm stock availability and physical location before the TO is released for execution.
• Prevent duplicate transfers of inventory already available at stores.
• Ensure that approved TOs are executed within the agreed timeline.
• Track all open, pending, partially executed, and completed TOs.
• Establish daily monitoring of TO aging.
• Investigate TOs that are created in the system but not physically executed.
• Prevent situations where system inventory is deducted even though the physical stock remains in the warehouse.
• Ensure physical movement and system movement happen simultaneously or within a clearly defined control window.
• Establish escalation procedures for delayed or unexecuted TOs.
• Reduce discrepancies arising from over-transfer and under-transfer.

Establish a controlled process for both:

1. Store-to-Store Pull-Outs
2. Store-to-DIP Pull-Outs

The Inventory Manager will:

• Ensure store teams accurately count and identify all products before returning or transferring inventory.
• Ensure SKU, description, quantity, condition, and destination are correctly recorded.
• Establish a standardized pull-out checklist and verification process.
• Ensure returned inventory is physically received and systemically recorded.
• Reduce discrepancies caused by incorrect store descriptions, quantities, or SKUs.
• Investigate and resolve discrepancies within defined turnaround times rather than allowing issues to remain open for 3–4 days.
• Monitor inventory damage resulting from repeated movement and recommend process improvements.
• Ensure items intended for DIP are actually returned to DIP and not left unaccounted for.

The Inventory Manager will work closely with the Product, Event, IT, Warehouse, Logistics, and Store teams to establish a structured event inventory planning process.

Responsibilities include:

• Establish minimum lead times for event inventory requirements.
• Require Product/Event teams to provide finalized inventory requirements within agreed timelines.
• Review inventory availability before events are confirmed.
• Validate TOs and event requirements before inventory is picked.
• Avoid last-minute inventory requests wherever reasonably possible.
• Establish a dedicated event inventory tracker.
• Track inventory issued to each event.
• Track inventory returned from each event.
• Reconcile event inventory within 2–3 days of event completion.
• Ensure all unsold, damaged, consumed, gifted, or missing inventory is properly accounted for.
• Escalate event discrepancies immediately.
• Conduct post-event inventory reconciliation and root-cause analysis.

There are currently insufficient controls over gifts and FOCs issued during events, at Head Office, and at stores.

The Inventory Manager will:

• Establish a formal system mechanism for recording all FOCs (Free of Cost items).
• Ensure all gifts issued from inventory are recorded against an approved transaction/reference.
• Establish clear authorization levels for gifts and FOCs.
• Ensure gifts issued at events, Head Office, and stores are accounted for.
• Reconcile physical FOC/gift movements with system records.
• Prevent manual or undocumented removal of inventory.
• Work with IT and Finance to introduce appropriate system functionality where required.

The Inventory Manager will take ownership of inventory-related WMS discipline.

Key responsibilities include:

• Ensure WMS transactions are accurate and completed on time.
• Identify and resolve transactional errors daily.
• Address WMS issues involving and other relevant warehouse processes.
• Ensure system transactions accurately represent physical movements.
• Work with IT to identify recurring system issues and implement permanent solutions.
• Ensure all unresolved transactional errors are tracked through a daily exception report.
• Establish clear procedures for box barcodes versus PCS barcodes.
• Ensure barcode processes are consistently followed.

Store teams currently face challenges in properly receiving inventory in the system, particularly following changes to SOPs.

The Inventory Manager will:

• Develop and implement a structured store receiving procedure.
• Ensure all store personnel involved in receiving inventory are properly trained.
• Conduct periodic refresher training.
• Monitor store receiving errors.
• Identify stores/users generating repeated transactional errors.
• Work with IT and Operations to simplify and strengthen the receiving process.
• Ensure SOP changes are communicated, trained, implemented, and monitored.
• Establish accountability for incorrect system receiving.

The Inventory Manager will introduce proper inventory planning and forecasting coordination across departments.

This includes:

• Establishing inventory requirements planning with the Product Department.
• Ensuring planned events and promotions are communicated to Inventory in advance.
• Reviewing inventory availability before commitments are made.
• Identifying potential shortages or excess inventory in advance.
• Establishing inventory requirement calendars.
• Providing visibility of inventory constraints to other departments.
• Reducing emergency and last-minute inventory requests.
• Ensuring inventory planning is integrated with event, retail, wholesale, and promotional activities.

• Establish a formal cycle-counting program.
• Conduct regular physical inventory counts based on SKU category, value, movement, and risk.
• Ensure count discrepancies are investigated immediately.
• Ensure all issues identified during a stock count are closed immediately after the count.
• No inventory count should be considered complete while material discrepancies remain unresolved.
• Maintain complete documentation of count results, discrepancies, investigations, approvals, and corrective actions.
• Report recurring discrepancies and their root causes to senior management.

Review and correct the current CBS inventory mechanism.

• Establish an appropriate consumables inventory process.
• Introduce a Consumables Journal to accurately record consumption.
• Ensure consumables are not treated as regular sellable inventory where inappropriate.
• Establish appropriate issuance, consumption, and reconciliation controls.
• Work with Finance and IT to align the system treatment of consumables with accounting and operational requirements.

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Operations, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Professional certification in inventory, supply chain, or warehouse management is preferred.

• 8–12 years of relevant experience in inventory, warehouse, supply chain, or retail operations.
• Experience managing large SKU volumes and multi-location inventory.
• Strong experience in retail, wholesale, FMCG, fashion, consumer products, or similar fast-moving environments is preferred.
• Experience managing warehouse and inventory teams.
• Strong experience with WMS/ERP systems such as Dynamics 365
• Experience handling inventory discrepancies, physical counts, cycle counts, and reconciliations.
• Experience managing transfer orders and multi-location inventory movements.
• Event/promotional inventory experience is highly desirable.