1. 187 Northstead Street
Scarborough, Perth.
mr.craig.atkinson@gmail.com
Phone: 0431 546 357
Commercially focused Product Manager with over 20 years’ experience developing,
designing, implementing and managing initiatives to support the strategic outcomes for some
of Australia's biggest brands and retailers.
Many of these initiatives have required significant business change and have been delivered
into mission critical environments with senior management focus on outcomes and results.
Craig adopts a disciplined approach to leadership with the ability to deliver quality outcomes
that satisfy the diverse interests of multiple stakeholders through easy to understand language
that connects business and brands.
He possesses a mature temperament with the ability to communicate effectively with
stakeholders, management and design staff at all levels.
Craig's broad scope of industry experience positions him to fully understand businesses and
their unique needs. As a buyer, he thrives on the challenge of finding new trends within the
marketplace and developing that into highly profitable products.
Craig has a solid understanding of the Australian retail marketplace with proven sell through
result in apparel and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG).
Throughout his career, Craig has nurtured strong supplier relationships with producers within
Asia. He has extensive network base and sound knowledge of sourcing within China.
Craig is always on the cutting edge of new process and systems. He utilises the Kanban
model for managing product development teams across many continents to ensure a close
online collaboration of all members.
Craig has strong knowledge of the Microsoft Office suite as well as web based productivity
applications and inventory / stock control software programme Pronto. Additionally, proficient
in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
Certified business traveler with an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) boarder pass.
He is happily married with a young family of two daughters in Scarborough, Perth WA.
SKILLS & ABILITIES ˜˜˜˜˜ Team Management
˜˜˜˜˜ Brand, Design & Development
˜˜˜˜™ Buying & Sourcing
˜˜˜˜™ Adobe Design Suite
˜˜˜˜˜ Project Management Software
˜˜˜˜™ Microsoft Office Suite
EXPERIENCE BUYER / PRODUCT MANAGER AUSTWIDE
NOVEMBER 2014 – FEBURARY 2017 (2.5 YEARS) PERTH, AUSTRALIA
Austwide consumer products is a Perth based national wholesale company that
distributes and imports a diverse range of products including homeware, toys,
kitchenware and other fast moving consumer goods to the Australian market.
Craig was primarily responsible for the organisation's product management across
both business to business and business to consumer segments.
As a buyer, Craig widely travelled to source, develop product, build partnerships and
audit factories within the following regions:
• Guangzhou: Craig is a certified member and highly experienced in navigating and
negotiating at the china import & export fair (canton fair)
• Hangzhou: designer homeware / furniture.
• Ningbo: kitchen, hardware, stationery, gardening and seasonal.
• Shanghai: Airtime inflatable pool toys. A$2.6m in annual sales revenue FY2016.
• Shantou: toys, games and hobbies $1.8m
• Yiwu: sourcing quality, cheaper FMCG commodity lines.

2. PAGE 2
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT: DESIGN, BRANDING & MARKETING.
• Complete re-branding of ACP’s FMCG product lines, including updates of branded
logos.
• Photoshoot direction and coordination most notably with Airtime luxe website
www.airtimeaustralia.com
• Photoshoot for pure-play online retailer campaigns.
• Art direction and sign-off of all marketing campaigns.
E-COMMERCE.
Craig deployed the go-to-market operations and management of newly created eBay
store "workleisureplay" to deliver a unique value proposition to customers and a
competitive advantage. Revenue was A$1.2m for the twelve-month period ended
December 31, 2016. Record monthly sales of A$165k for January 2017.
• Craig recruited, trained onsite, mentored, assigned daily tasks and maintained
alignment of the Philippines outsourcing team for eBay operations; graphic artist, data
administrators and customer service representatives.
• Delivery of custom built website www.airtimeaustralia.com on the Magento platform,
on time and within a lean budget.
• Social media marketing; including Facebook targeted ads, social media influencers
and automated processes to generate highly targeted site traffic.
• Search engine optimisation (SEO) management with external development company.
• Creation of an innovative online reverse engineering strategy to source highly
profitable products.
BRAND MANAGER MAMBO
NOVEMBER 2011 – OCTOBER 2014 (3 YEARS) SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
As Brand Manager for Mambo, Craig was responsible for the full product
development process & forward planning of the brand. As a brand, the team focused
on developing lifestyle apparel exclusively for BIG W, MYER & THE WAREHOUSE
(New Zealand).
Eight separate collections: Male & Female: adult, teen, toddler and baby.
DESIGN.
• Team leadership, motivation, training and empowering the team of eight designers.
• Extensive & regular international travel to identify global trends. Led the team to
adapt to market.
• Sign-off of key seasonal colours, silhouette and fabrications.
• Elevating brand integrity to be a premium offering in the Discount Department
Store (DDS) channel.
SALES.
Regular customer relationship management including sales presentations to:
• BIG W: Six apparel buyers, multiple planners & three executive level merchandising
managers.
• MYER: Melbourne head office.
• THE WAREHOUSE: Auckland head office.
PRODUCTION.
• Working efficiently with production team members on large scale, mass market
manufacturers within China & Bangladesh.
• Regular travel to build relationship & communication with factory associates.
• Adapting factory innovations into the product design process.
• Responsible for final sign-off of every style before production commenced.

3. PAGE 3
OPERATIONS.
• Ownership of business calendar, managed by Gantt chart.
• Introduction of "Gate & Stage" product development process.
• Option planning using expert intuition & data driven analysis.
• Implementation of new strategy, process & best practice.
ACHIEVEMENTS.
• After two years in the role, Mambo apparel was awarded BIG W: Supplier of the
year 2013 - Mens & Womenswear. First time any brand has taken out two
categories.
• Delivering brand authenticity whilst designing to DDS price-points.
• Exceeded budgeted sales growth in Mens & Womenswear: F12 & F13.
These accomplishments the entire Mambo team was able achieve under his
leadership.
2IC HEAD OF DESIGN QUIKSILVER
NOVEMBER 2010 – SEPTEMBER 2011 (1 YEAR 1 MONTH) BELLS BEACH, TORQUAY.
2ic HEAD OF DESIGN: managed, lead and inspired a team of 10 senior designers.
• CREATIVE DOCUMENT: Trend direction, art direction and conception of the W12
APAC region creative direction document. This document is used to ensure
consistent brand message & cohesiveness was represented across the men's line
(including all apparel, accessories and kids wear).
• STORY DEVELOPMENT: Craig conceptualised trend driven “stories” as a part of
the creative document. Used by the marketing department and visual merchandising
teams at range release, point of sales and instore presentations. Craig designed key
garments within these stories.
• BOARDSHORT DESIGN: Craig designed and developed key styles within the
global boardshort offering. Craig created the new international boardshort fit by
traditional hand pattern making method.
• QUICK TO MARKET: designed directional pieces for the QUIKnow, quick to market
program.
• SMU (Special Make Up): created specific designs tailored to Quiksilver’s largest
wholesale customers.
• OUTSOURCE DEVELOPMENT: with design/manufacturing companies based in
India and China Craig remotely advised and developed a large proportion of the
men’s tops range. Then presented these categories to heads of department, internal
retail buyers and company executives.
• TRENDS RESEARCH: Seasonal and directional research including international
buying trips, local in-store, internet analysis and trends presentations.
• FITS: Craig was personally responsible for ALL fits and manufacturing processes of
Quiksilver mens apparel, ensuring worlds best product offering.
• DESIGN TEAM MANAGEMENT: Craig proposed and discussed range direction
with design team, assisted with tech packs, flat sketches, fabric selections & colour
combinations.
• PRODUCTION: Craig worked closely with the production team to ensure quality,
fits and cost targets were met.
SENIOR DESIGNER RUSTY
2005 – 2010 (5 YEARS) PERTH, AUSTRALIA
•Clothing product development including boardshorts, walkshorts, shirts, knitwear
and overseeing all mens accessories.
•Developing the international direction document.
•Research, including regular international travel, music festivals, trade shows and
blogs.
•Developing concepts and forecasting seasonal prints.
•Work closely with sales and product merchandisers to maintain product assortment
& margin goals.

4. PAGE 4
•Design and approve product at all stages from concept, design, sampling, fitting,
fabric/prints/artwork to production.
MOST NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS.
•Under Craig’s leadership, accessories sales increased by more than one million
dollars from 2007 to 2008. In a period of flat sales growth in other apparel
categories.
•Proven ability to accurately pinpoint and predict shifts in colour and silhouette
•Creation of the SMU direct business with key buyers from leading retailers resulting
in significant growth in sales.
•Created a decidedly playful accessories trend that including refreshingly new line of
hats and backpacks that gained an international following. This strategy proved to
strengthen accessories offering and boosted product sales substantially.
SENIOR DESIGNER BILLABONG
1999 – 2004 (5 YEARS) GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND
• Design and develop, from inception to completion - woven shirts, knitwear and
polar fleece categories.
• Map out / storyboard new seasons range based on sales history and new samples
purchased from national and international travel.
• Create and maintain range plan within Microsoft Excel.
• Ensure overall colour, styling and treatment balance in the range.
• Selection of colour palettes for new and carry through fabrics.
• Prepare and brief graphic designers to develop new lead logos for placements and
repeat fabric prints.
• Creation of tech packs for approved styles. This involves styling the finer details of
the garment i.e. embroideries, prints, fabrication, washes and trims.
• Managing and co-ordination of work for assistants for efficient processing of styles.
• Approvals of prints, embroideries, trims, fabrics and colour.
• Managing the standard of fit and garment blocks by liaising with the pattern making
room. This includes issuing fit comments and block alterations for each style.
• Maintain communication with department managers and merchandisers in order to
meet tight deadlines.
MOST NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS.
• Development of many outstanding designs that were proven top sellers worldwide.
• Contributed to the consistent sales growth of the company, since it was listed on
the Australian stock exchange early 2000.
• Development of a new range of knitwear. This involved study at the International
Fibre Centre of Deakin University in Melbourne.
• Introduced the company to leading international forecasting and design
companies. Promostyl and WSGN.
• Collaborated with international design teams from California, France, Japan and
Brazil.
• Organised and scheduled national and international research trips to Paris,
London, New York, Barcelona, Cologne, Los Angeles, Sydney & Melbourne.
EDUCATION
RECOMMENDATIONS
FASHION MANUFACTURING RANDWICK TAFE
DIPLOMA 1999 – 1992
FASHION DESIGN EAST SYDNEY TAFE
DIPLOMA 1999 - 1992
Available upon request.