Director, Strategic Growth - Key Accounts

Garanorporated•New York, NY

3d•Onsite

About The Position

Garan, a leading children’s apparel company and retail supplier, is seeking a highly driven, entrepreneurial commercial leader to accelerate growth across our most important strategic customer relationships, with an immediate focus on a leading national mass-market retailer. This is a growth leadership role within the children’s apparel industry, not a traditional account-management position. Supported by an established account-management and execution team, the Director, Strategic Growth – Key Accounts will be responsible for identifying and creating new business opportunities across children’s and baby apparel. The role will focus on identifying whitespace in customer assortments, anticipating consumer and fashion trends, developing differentiated product and merchandising concepts, strengthening senior-level merchant relationships, and converting insights into meaningful business wins. The successful candidate will combine a strong apparel merchant mindset with exceptional selling skills, product curiosity, competitive intelligence, and the ability to move quickly from insight to commercial opportunity.

Requirements

Approximately 10–15 years of experience in apparel, with children’s, baby, family, or related categories strongly preferred.
Significant experience working for an apparel manufacturer, supplier, brand, or other consumer products company selling to major national retailers.
Significant experience working directly with leading national mass-market retailers.
Established relationships and credibility within major retail merchant organizations.
A demonstrated track record of originating and winning new apparel programs, expanding assortments, and growing strategic retail accounts.
Evidence of identifying competitive opportunities and successfully gaining market share or shelf space.
Strong knowledge of children’s and/or baby apparel, including basics, fabrics, graphics, licensing, pricing, product development, merchandising, and consumer trends.
A merchant mindset combined with strong business-development and selling capabilities.
The ability to evaluate an apparel assortment and identify what is missing, what could perform better, and where a supplier can create differentiated value.
Proven ability to uncover opportunities through competitive shopping, store visits, consumer insights, data, and trend intelligence.
Strong executive presence, communication skills, and the ability to develop persuasive product and business presentations.
Experience leading, coaching, or developing account-management teams.
Ability and willingness to spend meaningful time engaging with customers in person.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute a strategic growth plan for a leading national mass-market retailer and other key customer relationships.
Identify whitespace opportunities across children’s and baby apparel, including categories, products, fabrics, silhouettes, graphics, licensed products, price points, packaging, and merchandising.
Regularly assess competitive children’s apparel assortments to identify unmet consumer needs, emerging trends, competitive vulnerabilities, and opportunities to gain market share.
Proactively develop new product, category, and merchandising concepts—bringing customers compelling ideas before they formally request them.
Translate consumer, fashion, fabric, pricing, and retail trends into commercially viable apparel programs.
Build trusted, productive relationships with buyers, merchants, directors, and senior customer leadership.
Strengthen Garan’s presence, relevance, and influence with key retail customers.
Lead, coach, and develop the account-management team, creating a culture of proactive business development and accountability.
Partner closely with design, merchandising, product development, sourcing, planning, marketing, and operations to turn opportunities into executable apparel programs.
Lead persuasive customer presentations, line reviews, innovation meetings, and executive business reviews.
Establish and manage a disciplined pipeline of new ideas and growth opportunities, from initial product concept through commercial adoption.
Drive incremental programs, assortment expansion, shelf-space gains, and market-share growth.