Explore: Fashion

Ethical Trade Manager
Boden

print
info Issues viewing the video?

Julia R

00:00:04 My name’s Julia R. I work at Boden and I’m an ethical trade manager. Ethical trade manager is quite a new role at Boden. We started it in March of last year and we set up the role to develop an ethical trade programme within our business, and we really wanted put more emphasis behind focussing on the ethical trade. It’s really looking at the working conditions, at the factories, the people within our supply chain and trying to make sure that they are being treated as we would want to be treated.

00:00:38 At the moment it’s quite difficult to define an average day because, because I am setting up the role and setting up the department. You know, I could be doing some admin one day, you know, out there at the factories working with auditors the next day. It’s quite varied.

00:00:58 At school, I really liked things like maths, science, which are obviously are quite academic subjects, but I also really enjoyed textiles, which is probably where everything kind of stemmed from. By the time I left school, I realised that, you know, textiles was what I wanted to do. I’d wanted to do something within that sector for a while. Then I moved on to college. I actually chose to do textiles as a full time focus as a national diploma.

00:01:31 Both my parents are quite hands on. They both kind of made homewear etc, so I guess that’s where, you know, my first, you know, taster came from, and also, you know, my grandma knits, does crochet, all those sorts of things, so that’s kind of where I got interested. Out of our immediate family, I was probably the first one to go on to college. Most of the rest of my family went straight from school into jobs, so that, you know, they were pretty encouraging.

00:01:56 I was actually really fortunate because I was taken on by Marks and Spencer’s placement scheme and there was a couple of people at our university that did it. So they actually placed me with two of their factories in the UK. I did six months at each factory, and it was…the experience was invaluable to be honest, and that was one of the things that helped me get my first role, was the fact that I already had a year’s experience in manufacturing, which was really key to the role that I went into.

00:02:27 When I left university, I moved into a technologist’s position at Tesco. The reason I left there was because a lot of the parts of my role that I enjoyed were getting passed back down the supply chain. So essentially I felt as though I was becoming a manager managing other people rather than actually doing the things that I enjoyed doing.

00:02:50 I don’t really get a lot of time in the week to myself so I do try to make the most of the time that I have got. Dancing is just one of those things that I’ve always been interested in from a little girl, but not really had the opportunities when I was younger. There’s been a couple of courses that I’ve looked at, obviously there’s lots of different types of dance, and one kind of came up which I’ve just started now, which is Latin and ballroom, and I enrolled at the end of last year. Fortunately my husband’s decided to join as well so I have got a dancing partner.

00:03:24 If I had to work, you know, clothing and textiles is my ideal industry. If it was something, you know, you won the lottery and you didn’t have to work, then I’d probably choose something that’s almost completely the opposite. You know, I would want somewhere that was a five minute commute from home rather than an hour and a half. I would want somewhere that was possibly, you know, outside in the countryside or in a nice hot country. But as it is, you know, I’m happy, happy doing what I’m doing in the industry that I’m familiar with.

Julia R works at Boden as an ethical trade manager. She makes sure people who supply Boden’s are treating their workforce fairly. “it’s quite difficult to define an average day because I am setting up the department.” She says “textiles was what I wanted to do” so she did a placement at M&S factories at college and then worked in supply at Tesco.

Data issue: on some pages, the information below does not match the job type in the video. We are working to fix this as soon as possible.

More information about Buyers and procurement officers

?
£40,040
average salary

The UK average salary is £29,813

?
39
average weekly hours

There are 37.5 hours in the average working week

?
50%  male 
50%  female 

The UK workforce is 47% female and 53% male

Future employment

Future employment?

Description
? Buyers and procurement officers organise and undertake the buying of raw materials, equipment and merchandise from manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and other sources for distribution, resale or for own internal use.
Qualifications
There are no formal academic requirements although some employers expect A levels/H grades, BTEC/SQA awards or degrees. Employers may ask for specific experience for a particular role. Professional qualifications and vocational qualifications in Procurement at Levels 3, 4 and 5 are available.
Tasks
  • Attends trade fairs, shows and demonstrations to research new product lines and suppliers, checks catalogues
  • Keeps up with market trends and chooses products/services
  • Assesses budgetary limitations and customer requirements and decides on quantity, type, range and quality of goods or services to be bought
  • Assesses bids from suppliers, finds suppliers and negotiates prices
  • Helps negotiate contract with supplier and specifies details of goods or services required
  • Looks at ways to improve supply networks, presents new ideas to senior management team
  • Ensures that delivered items comply with order, monitors quality of incoming goods and returns unsatisfactory or faulty items, monitors performance and makes sure targets are met
  • Supervises clerical, administrative and warehouse distribution staff, deals with recruitment and training
  • Works closely with merchandisers who allocate stock and develop sales forecasts
  • Maintains records and prepares reports as necessary
Employment by region
?
Top 10 industries for this job
?
Retail trade 20024
Wholesale trade 19836
Land transport, etc 3967
Services to buildings 3892
Head offices, etc 2775
Public admin. & defence 2428
Auxiliary  services 2376
Health 2189
Other non-metallic 1935
Construction 1486
Employment status
?

From personal careers advice to finding work, see our round-up of
useful websites to help you on your way

Explore more videos by: