The Fashion Retailer

A day in the life of Carlota, Kids Accessories Manager at Mango.

Carlota Casals. Mango Kids Accessories Manager. 30 years old. Married and mother of a boy. Fashion fan. Enjoys traveling, exploring new restaurants and visiting fashion stores.

The Fashion Retailer: Could you define what is Mango?

Carlota Casals: Punto Fa S.L., trading as MANGO, is a fashion retail company founded in Barcelona in 1984. Its brand portfolio includes Mango, Mango Man, Mango Kids and Violeta by Mango. Its goal is to dress a young, urban, and fashion-oriented customer at an affordable price.

At the date MANGO has +2,200 mono-branded stores, spread around 112 countries, being one of the most international brand (if not the most). The company produces 142 million units per year, and it has +16,000 employees. In 2000, MANGO launched its online shop, being one of the first fashion retailers, currently their online share stands for 12% of the total turnover.

According to the last data published, Punto Fa, S.L.’s turnover in 2016 was 2,3 billion euros.

Mango Kids collection inspiration – source: mango.com

TFR: What is your role at Mango?

CC: I´m currently Kids Accessories Manager at Mango. Two years ago, Kids accessories was managed from the Kids category but currently it is managed in an integrated department specialized in Accessories. I joined Mango to lead this new project that includes newborn, baby, boy and girl.

TFR: What does accessories department include?

CC: The accessories department is independent from the Kids apparel one, which was launched in 2013. But there are many synergies between each other. Accessories include bags, shoes, jewelry, belts, scarves, socks, hats among others. The age group or segment includes Boys and Girls from 3 to 14 years old and Babies from newborns to 4 years old.

TFR: How is your department or team organized?

CC: We are a team of 3 people: a designer, a junior buyer and myself. Some categories/family of products share designers and buyers in order to integrate resources and find efficiencies. The Accessories Department includes Women, Men, Violeta (a brand from Mango´s portfolio) and Mango Kids. This department is led by the Accessories Director and we communicate with him on a daily basis.

TFR: What is a “day in the life of” a Buyer in your company?

CC: During a standard day, I can manage many activities from creating a structure for the collection to review the budget to adapt it to the section needs. Another activity under my role is to make a good selection of the products that later on, we will need to negotiate and follow the process until de products reaches our warehouse. Thanks to the distribution and product department, production is allocated to the right place.

We also travel around the world, to the fashion hotspots, in order to get inspiration from the next collections. We use these trips to visit our stores and get in touch with the customers. Each customer has its characteristics and we try to understand each customer segment in every geography.

Mango Kids Hat – source: mango.com

TFR: What do you feel is more important in your role, creativity or science? What do you think are the most important skills to succeed in your role?

CC: I think that the most important thing within my role at Mango is having a sensibility for the product, the current trends and fashion in general. It is also important to have the ability to identify the real needs, the ones coming from the street and keep in touch continuously with stores and the buzz (customer´s feedback, social media…).

TFR: You have previous experience in a leading fashion retailer. Could you describe what are the main differences between MDutti and Mango as an employee? Best and worst?

CC: I use to work at Inditex, specifically at Massimo Dutti, as Product Manager of Boys & Girls. I think that both Massimo Dutti and Mango are two awesome places to work, learn and add value. Like every company, they have costs and benefits, but I would recommend both of them. The high level of expectations, speed of the industry and responsibility at each level of the hierarchy makes you grow in a professional and personal point of view.