Apparel Merchandising & Sourcing · Bangladesh RMG · 14+ years
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Apparel merchandising & sourcing · Dhaka, Bangladesh

Turning buyer requirements into shipped orders, for fourteen years.

Merchandising Team Leader at LPP S.A.’s Dhaka Liaison Office, leading a four-person team across five European brands. The work runs from product development and costing through sourcing, capacity and production to shipment.

Merchandising · Product Development · Sourcing · Supplier Management · Supply Chain · Commercial

Md. Sohel Rana, Merchandising Team Leader at LPP S.A. Bangladesh
14+
Years in Bangladesh RMG
3M
Pieces managed per year
97%
On-time delivery, latest season
$35M
Trading business co-built
10K+
LinkedIn followers

What I do

Six functions, one order.

A style moves through all of these before it ships. Managing them as one file, rather than six handovers, is where the job is won or lost.

Merchandising

Order execution from inquiry to shipment, against the critical path.

Product Development

Turning a design intent into something a factory can actually make at the price.

Sourcing

Supplier identification and assessment on capability, capacity and price.

Supplier Management

Onboarding, development, grading and audit status across an active base.

Supply Chain

Keeping materials, capacity and the shipping date pointing at the same week.

Commercial

Prices that hold up when yarn moves, and margins defended on both sides.

How I approach the work →

Career snapshot

Four companies, both sides of the order.

Three years factory-side, and every year since in European buying and liaison offices.

2024 – Now

Merchandising Team Leader · LPP S.A.

Dhaka Liaison Office. Five brands, a four-person team, denim and accessories.

2018 – 2024

Account Lead Merchandiser · Celio

Six product accounts run independently across 14 factories and six buying seasons a year.

2014 – 2018

Key Lead Merchandiser · New Wave Group

Own brands first, then co-building the group’s trading arm, Multi Sourcing Asia Ltd.

2011 – 2014

Merchandiser · Crystal Martin Apparel

Factory-side on the Marks & Spencer account, with the production floor downstairs.

View the full career journey →

How I work

Beyond order follow-up.

A price is only real if the yarn behind it is real. A delivery date is only real if the line can run it. Most of what goes wrong in an order is visible weeks earlier, in a fabric booking, a capacity commitment or an approval that has not moved, and the value of the job is catching it there rather than at final inspection.

That means working with two sets of constraints at once. Buyers need specification, margin and the date. Factories need lead time, material readiness and a realistic load. Finding the answer that holds at both ends is the part that takes fourteen years to learn.

Thought leadership

RMG Xpress Insights by Sohel

Insights. Experience. Excellence.

One issue a week on what is actually changing in apparel sourcing: costing pressure, supplier capacity, EU compliance and the tools worth using. Read mostly by merchandisers, sourcing managers and brand-side buyers.

Retail & Sourcing

How the EU's Unsold Inventory Ban Changes the Math for Apparel Sourcing

Why the EU's unsold inventory ban is shifting apparel sourcing toward tighter forecasting, smaller commitments, faster replenishment, and more flexible suppliers.

August 2026 · RMG Xpress Insights by Sohel
Sourcing & Materials

Why Bangladesh's Costing Sheets Still Begin With Cotton

Why Bangladesh's transition to man-made fibres requires coordinated buyer commitments, supplier investment, and policy support to build a globally competitive synthetic apparel value chain.

July 2026 · RMG Xpress Insights by Sohel
Compliance & Environment

The Pollution Did Not Disappear. It Changed Address

How ZDHC's shift from wastewater to sludge governance is creating new compliance challenges and infrastructure priorities for Bangladesh's apparel industry.

July 2026 · RMG Xpress Insights by Sohel

Background

Technical training, commercial practice.

A textile engineering base, formal business education on top of it, and continuing work on where sourcing is heading.

B.Sc. Textile Engineering

Wet processing and dyeing · City University, Bangladesh

PGD in Garment Business

IBA, University of Dhaka · completed August 2026

Sustainability & compliance

OCS and recycled programmes, OEKO-TEX STeP, ACCORD and BSCI audit requirements

AI for professional work

myAi AiPS completed 2026, AiAP in progress · applied to live merchandising

Education, training & CV →

Recent milestones

Latest achievements

Season 2026

97% on-time delivery at LPP

Latest season, across 35 vendors and ~3 million pieces a year, while growing Dhaka office order volume 10% against target. See the role in full →

2025–26

8 new vendors sourced and onboarded

Evaluated and brought into LPP’s Bangladesh supply base across denim, woven bottoms, and accessories, with vendor-sharing strategies to balance capacity across brands.

Aug 2026

Completed the PGD in Garment Business, IBA, University of Dhaka

Fourteen years of operating experience set against formal business method at the country’s top business school, finishing with a supervised industry attachment at LPP. See the full programme →

2026

myAi certification track, AiPS and AiAP

Completed AI for Professional Success on 17 July 2026; started the three-month AI Agents for Professional Excellence programme on 18 August 2026, toward the Certified AI Automation Strategist credential. See the coursework →

2026

Built this site and the PGD-GB Batch 11 archive

Both planned, written and built hands-on with AI tools, no agency and no framework. The archive is the public record of my IBA-SICIP batch: 46 lecturers, 108 dated classes, 3 modules, 30 credits. Visit the archive →

Ongoing

RMG Xpress Insights by Sohel, every week

Read by merchandisers, sourcing managers, and brand-side buyers, alongside a LinkedIn audience of more than 10,000 followers and daily posts.

Let’s connect.

For professional conversation, industry exchange, supplier and buyer introductions, or a relevant opportunity. Read a few months of the newsletter and you will know how I think before we ever talk.