Purpose of the Role:

Creating a vision of tomorrow to inform decisions for the Primark Brand today. The Future Trends Manager role will work with Head of Innovation and Future Trends to deliver new and evolving consumer trends and innovation. Consistently moving the dial in thinking and driving business and brand growth into the Future, to deliver the KPI’s for sales, profit, perception, relevance and market share growth across all relevant channels within Primark.

Working 12-24 months in advance of delivery, the Future Trends role will coordinate, strategise and structure co-working and innovation across different business functions. They will also steer research, carry out forecasting, and predict global retail macro trends ready to present to the wider leadership team and other key stakeholders, to inform decisions that we make about the future.

This role will report directly to Head of Innovation as part of the Brand team, and is a cross departmental collaborative role that will work closely with different functions within the business including Brand, People & Culture, Diversity & Inclusion, New Business Development, Buying, Merchandising & Design and many others.

This role will have a one direct report assistant that can support in the research and lateral thinking with the aim to develop into a strong core Future Trends team.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Research of future consumer trends across various sources and build a future view of how this will impact consumer behaviour and Primark.
• Development of concepts and actions using a strong element of intuition, inspiration and creativity.
• Challenge perceptions of how things are by bringing to life how they could be, working in conjunction with external partners and consumer FWD THINK focus groups.
• Socialise macro trend information with relevant functions e.g. D&I, Marketing, NBD, Product and share thinking more broadly with other innovation led functions within Primark
• Be an external barometer – know where and who to go to for source data that will provide the best future thinking
• Curate and innovate a useable database of knowledge that will drive competitive advantage
• Generate a broad world view across multiple markets, being able to helicopter into category detail when relevant and will add intrinsic value, focusing on the strategic whilst being mindful of reactive developments that may impact the future view
• Deliver against the clear measures and metrics process to assess function’s value – continually driving to be best in class and deliver robust ROI from sales or brand perception
• Role model positive leadership behaviours that encourage development and embraces change in the face of ambiguity.
• Coordinate sharing of the information among business stakeholders.

Skills & Experience:

• 5+ years of relevant, professional experience, in a Retail or Product role, with a focus on innovation and trend forecasting.
• In-depth understanding of our retail markets, constantly open to seeking new opportunities that create competitive advantage, as well as having an understanding of Global Macro Trends and dynamics that influence customer behaviour
• Super curious and driven to seek out the new, in order to understand the now and next
• Ability to translate complex ideas into simple actionable insights that all colleagues can access
• Be a thought leader – provide fresh perspectives, be comfortable with ambiguity and able to challenge current status quo
• Thorough researcher, always learning
• Know who and how to access external insights that will add richness and depth to those accessible internally
• Be adept at building macro trend and forecasting process
• Open Minded Ideas scout – gather ideas internally and externally to leverage the highest potential
• Brilliant communicator – Passionate presenter and charismatic salesperson
• Role model positive and agile ways of working with all areas of the business; facilitating an environment that delivers at pace and iterates from learning
• Experience and confidence in building presentations
• Adept at building and managing a storage of insights to create an accessible knowledge library for all colleagues to access