Buyer Speciality Sports

Join adidas’ Future Leaders Program, an 18-month journey designed for early career professionals with working experience who are ambitious, driven, and passionate about making an impact. Alongside hands‑on experience in one of the world’s fastest‑moving industries, you’ll gain academic knowledge on leadership through a certified course with the Graduate School of Business. This is your chance to unlock your potential, grow your career, and shape the future of sport and retail.

If you’re bold, curious, and ready to lead, your next big move starts here.

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organisation

The purpose of the Concept to Consumer (CTC) team is to develop profitable, locally‑relevant product ranges by category to best meet the needs of the local consumers.

For this role specifically:

• Deliver a globally aligned and locally relevant product range for EMS, focusing on delivering the company sales growth aspirations per sales channel
• Sustainably grow profitability and market share for each sport within the Specialist Sports (SPSP) category/ Business Unit.
• Support line manager in building the seasonal go‑to‑market (GTM) process for SPSP to build the optimal product offering, considering the unique local consumer and channel requirements.
• Be the product expert for SPSP, and provide the relevant support for all Marketing GTM plans

Key Responsibilities

• Deliver a compelling range/concept selection for EMS by balancing local consumer, global brand and commercial considerations and supporting the overall business strategy of the channels.
• Support GTM process to engage channels and customers and collaboratively build the strongest viable product mix.
• Deliver net sales and profitability (GIM) by managing pricing, margin, and the product mix.
• Ownership of product demand forecasting, which most accurately reflects the customer and consumer demand in the market.
• Seasonal analysis of marketplace to understand trends, competitor product assortments and pricing.
• Proactively drive cluster range enhancements that meet local needs and reflect differentiation in marketplace where required. Work closely with the SPSP HUB team to deliver these.
• Own the range architecture for the cluster considering range guidance, brand focus and local pricing requirements.
• Monitor and maintain the accuracy of product data integrity available to the business via the pricing matrix.
• Conduct monthly analysis of sell‑through performance, sell out, of the relevant sport within SPSP categories and adjust the range where necessary.
• Support seasonal Brand Activations by aligning with BA/Omni team on Marketing plans; communication tools; activation tools; and providing sports marketing support to ensure our partners get access to the best of adidas.

Key Relationships

• Director CTC EM South
• Cluster Demand Planning team
• EM SPSP HUB team

KPIs

• Net Sales and GIM%
• Range efficiency targets; range size and efficiency (incl. overlap)
• Market Sales vs Plan

Knowledge,

Skills and Abilities

• Merchandising, category management/planning, assortment planning and retail/sales experience beneficial
• Understanding of the Specialty Sports market within South Africa
• Strong presentation/communications and influencing skills
• Strong numerical/analytical skills and attention to detail
• Intermediate to advanced skills in MS Office
  - Excel & Powerpoint key
• Structured, organised and process‑orientated
• Ability to work effectively within a team environment under pressure

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications

• University degree
• 5+ years buying/FMCG experience
• Industry: Preferably in sport retail or brand
• Exposure:
  Retail/FMCG/Sport

Location:

Cape Town, West, ZA