ShiekhA plan for the mall retailer, and the move from Dunk to Air Force 1

What it is

Shiekh was a mall retailer with 115 doors in seven states across the West. Jimmy's account profile describes it as the premier mall based urban retailer, focused on the Los Angeles teen. Its target consumer was the 17 year old high school student, motivated by fashion.

The business was shrinking. Confirmed bookings were $20.7M in fiscal 2010 and $19.4M in fiscal 2011, down 6.5%. The plan names the issues: the current level of "toxic inventory", an antiquated operational infrastructure, no clear Nike message at retail, and a small share of women's business.

What Jimmy did

• Built the open to buy plan with Shiekh by January 2011. Open to buy is the retailer's budget for new purchases.
• Wrote the account profile in March 2011 and the fiscal 2012 to 2014 strategic plan the same month.
• Set the mission: position Shiekh as the leading mall based urban retailer in the West, through trend relevant product, market leading presentation and customer service.
• Asked Nike to elevate the account's doors: five at the Pinnacle level and 110 at Best. The five were Fox Hills in Los Angeles, Southland Mall in Hayward, Market Street in San Francisco, Boulevard Mall in Las Vegas and Lloyd Center in Portland.
• Owned seven initiatives in the fiscal 2012 action plan. They included editing the assortment to the key categories of Nike Sportswear, basketball and action sports, working with product teams on West Coast relevant assortments, acquiring door level information, and scaling the wins from shop doors to all doors.
• Worked from a platform assortment review of the account, dated February 2011 and held in his account file. It covered twelve months of retail results and called for three moves: shift the Dunk business to the Air Force 1, keep moving the Blazer assortment to other styles, and cut the assortment outside the icons.
• Led the Los Angeles team at the MAGIC trade show in his manager's absence, and mapped the message for each retailer.

Results

• The assortment review found the Air Force 1 was the strongest seller, with the strongest gross margin and sell-through. Air Force 1 receipts were down 37% while total men's footwear receipts were up 4.2%.
• On order, the Dunk fell from 17% of the cupsole business to 1%, and the Blazer from 51% to 25%. Cupsole was the review's name for the group of styles that held the Air Force 1, the Vandal and the Dunk.
• Fall 2011 authorized futures were $4.1M, up 9.7%. Nike Sportswear was up 44.5% to $3.0M and action sports up 26.2%. Basketball was down 22.3% and kids down 50.8%.
• Retail results from December 26, 2010 to February 19, 2011 against the prior year: margin up 40.5%, sell-through up 27.4%, sales down 3.8%, inventory up 24.1%.
• The roadmap of March 28, 2011 set a three-year objective of $24.3M in confirmed bookings by fiscal 2014, from $19.2M, with Nike's share of the account rising from 48% to 65% and doors from 115 to 130.
• He recorded the MAGIC meetings as successful: the categories got the information they needed and the account accepted the Nike strategy.
• He left the account in May 2011. The outcome against the three-year targets is not in the archive.