{"id":57341,"date":"2025-02-07T05:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T04:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underlinesmagazine.com\/?p=57341"},"modified":"2025-02-07T11:45:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T10:45:36","slug":"the-friday-interview-belinda-leca-of-the-wacoal-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underlinesmagazine.com\/2025\/02\/07\/the-friday-interview-belinda-leca-of-the-wacoal-group\/","title":{"rendered":"THE FRIDAY INTERVIEW: BELINDA LECA OF THE WACOAL GROUP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This Friday Underlines chats to Belinda Leca, Head of Sales for the UK and Eire at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wacoal-europe.com\/\">Wacoal Group<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><em>Belinda is a \u2018veteran\u2019 of the lingerie sector, having chalked up some 25 years in the business. \u00a0She explains how the business found her and how she was smitten by the intimate apparel sector and has never looked back!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-57342\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BL-Photo.jpg?resize=1170%2C1559&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1170\" height=\"1559\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BL-Photo.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BL-Photo.jpg?resize=350%2C466&amp;ssl=1 350w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BL-Photo.jpg?resize=780%2C1039&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BL-Photo.jpg?resize=170%2C227&amp;ssl=1 170w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BL-Photo.jpg?resize=768%2C1023&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BL-Photo.jpg?resize=1153%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1153w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BL-Photo.jpg?resize=1170%2C1559&amp;ssl=1 1170w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BL-Photo.jpg?resize=585%2C780&amp;ssl=1 585w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Life before Wacoal?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have a BCom Hons degree in economics. My first job was working with a financial company that developed a software package for investment bankers to support with their trades.\u00a0 I was responsible for business development, existing sales as well as training and support.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I left that world and moved to London.\u00a0\u00a0 While looking for work, I remember opening the cosmopolitan magazine and seeing a full-page advert of the most beautiful set of lingerie I had ever seen.<\/p>\n<p>I just so happened to secure an interview that same week for the lingerie brand that was advertising and got the job, so I guess that you can say lingerie found me!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>I guess you can say lingerie found me!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Why intimate apparel?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What I love about the world of lingerie is that it is a product that can transform and improve the well-being of women.\u00a0\u00a0 Finding the perfect fit can be life changing.<\/p>\n<p>Working at the Wacoal group which has a diverse portfolio of brands and is \u2018committed to finding the right fit for every woman\u2019 gives working in the industry a sense of purpose.<\/p>\n<div class=\"penci-post-gallery-container single-slider column-3\" data-height=\"250\" data-margin=\"3\"><div class=\"penci-owl-carousel penci-owl-carousel-slider penci-nav-visible\" data-auto=\"true\" data-lazy=\"true\"><figure><a class=\"item-gallery-single-slider\" href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Freya-ENTWINED_TATTOO_UW-PLUNGE-BRA_AA403802_THONG_AA403870_TAO_060.jpg?fit=1092%2C1638&ssl=1\" data-cap=\"Freya Lingerie (Entwined)\n\" data-rel=\"penci-gallery-image-content\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Freya-ENTWINED_TATTOO_UW-PLUNGE-BRA_AA403802_THONG_AA403870_TAO_060.jpg?fit=1092%2C1638&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" title=\"Freya ENTWINED_TATTOO_UW-PLUNGE-BRA_AA403802_THONG_AA403870_TAO_060\"><\/a><p class=\"penci-single-gallery-captions\">Freya Lingerie (Entwined)\n<\/p><\/figure><figure><a class=\"item-gallery-single-slider\" href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Shot_10_VIVID-ATTRACTION_WOODROSE_UW-BRA_WA851384_HI-CUT-BRIEF_WA845384_666_2419V3-copy.jpg?fit=1092%2C1638&ssl=1\" data-cap=\"Wacoal Lingerie (Vivid Attraction)\n\" data-rel=\"penci-gallery-image-content\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Shot_10_VIVID-ATTRACTION_WOODROSE_UW-BRA_WA851384_HI-CUT-BRIEF_WA845384_666_2419V3-copy.jpg?fit=1092%2C1638&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" title=\"Shot_10_VIVID-ATTRACTION_WOODROSE_UW-BRA_WA851384_HI-CUT-BRIEF_WA845384_666_2419V3 copy\"><\/a><p class=\"penci-single-gallery-captions\">Wacoal Lingerie (Vivid Attraction)\n<\/p><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<p><strong>A typical week?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It really depends on what week or month it is!<\/p>\n<p>I try to make the most of those early mornings to get in some sort of exercise and usually start by mapping out my day\/week in my head.\u00a0I tend to start with my emails so I can re-prioritise my plan if there is anything new that might be more urgent has come up.<\/p>\n<p>I will already have visibility of what is planned in the diary for the week, so there will be several internal and external meetings in the calendar.<\/p>\n<p>My role encompasses sales, but I work closely with our planning, marketing, finance and design departments to fully support the execution our sales strategy, so there are regular touch points and follow up meetings in place to support this.<\/p>\n<p>There are usually several new or on-going projects that require coordination from various departments which is being worked on.<\/p>\n<p>I try to catch up with my direct reports daily unless I am in full day meetings.\u00a0 I believe in keeping up to date with what is going on and we can manage any priorities in smaller chunks.\u00a0\u00a0 We work very closely together to manage the sales daily so we are can meet our monthly and quarterly expectations.<\/p>\n<p>We also plan regular calls with our Indies team and this keeps us connected to our sales and customers.<\/p>\n<p>I do also deal directly with customers, so there is plenty of administration and customer support needed to fill the gaps.<\/p>\n<p>My goal is to always leave a clean inbox at the end of the week and to have a clear plan outlined for the start of the next week.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>What is the best thing about your job?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It has to be the variety that the role offers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have never been one for the perfect routine, so this suits me.<\/p>\n<p>One minute we helping customers to get to know our most loved assortment and the next we are putting on our creative hats in design meetings to view new season collections and this is all while the current season is still in stores and we managing our sell out.<\/p>\n<p>Wacoal has a variety of brands that offer a different proposition to different women.\u00a0 Being part of the process in helping customers finding the best brand and assortment mix to help grow their business is the best part.<\/p>\n<p>When you go into stores and see our product displayed to full potential, you cannot help but look back and think, I was part of the process in making that happen!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>I was part of the process in making that happen!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is different about working in this sector?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Just how specialist everyone who works in this sector is.<\/p>\n<p>Not only do we need to have a design team that has the technical know-how on great fit and design but all the players that support in bringing the product to market successfully.\u00a0\u00a0Ensuring the best product assortment while still effectively managing all those SKU\u2019s is a balance that we have all had to become experts in.<\/p>\n<p>Bras are also constantly evolving to not just be there to support your boobs but to be a complete package of styling, fit and ultimate comfort.\u00a0 Although comfort has always been at the heart of our brands, some of our recent collections for example contain new innovative ways of ensuring more comfort.\u00a0 \u00a0This means we can continue to add further value by offering pieces that remain stylish and more wearable by the consumer.<\/p>\n<div class=\"penci-post-gallery-container single-slider column-3\" data-height=\"250\" data-margin=\"3\"><div class=\"penci-owl-carousel penci-owl-carousel-slider penci-nav-visible\" data-auto=\"true\" data-lazy=\"true\"><figure><a class=\"item-gallery-single-slider\" href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/017_TIERNIE_RED_UW-PLUNGE-BRA-STRETCH_EL303334_THONG_EL303370_RED_242_RGB.jpg?fit=1651%2C1100&ssl=1\" data-cap=\"Elomi Lingerie (Tiernie)\n\" data-rel=\"penci-gallery-image-content\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/017_TIERNIE_RED_UW-PLUNGE-BRA-STRETCH_EL303334_THONG_EL303370_RED_242_RGB.jpg?fit=1170%2C780&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" title=\"017_TIERNIE_RED_UW-PLUNGE-BRA-STRETCH_EL303334_THONG_EL303370_RED_242_RGB\"><\/a><p class=\"penci-single-gallery-captions\">Elomi Lingerie (Tiernie)\n<\/p><\/figure><figure><a class=\"item-gallery-single-slider\" href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/LUCIA_MIDNIGHT_UW-SIDE-SUPPORT-BRA_FL101501_BRIEF_FL101550_MIH_2391_R2.jpg?fit=1500%2C895&ssl=1\" data-cap=\"Fantasie Lingerie (Lucia)\n\" data-rel=\"penci-gallery-image-content\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/LUCIA_MIDNIGHT_UW-SIDE-SUPPORT-BRA_FL101501_BRIEF_FL101550_MIH_2391_R2.jpg?fit=1170%2C698&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" title=\"LUCIA_MIDNIGHT_UW-SIDE-SUPPORT-BRA_FL101501_BRIEF_FL101550_MIH_2391_R2\"><\/a><p class=\"penci-single-gallery-captions\">Fantasie Lingerie (Lucia)\n<\/p><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Whom do you admire in the underwear industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You have to admire Sara Blakely and the empire she built at Spanx. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Retailers like Sarah Tremellen, the original founder of Bravissimo, is also on the list having built a successful retail business from very humble beginnings.\u00a0 It takes courage to start up a business and women like these give inspiration and hope for anyone thinking of starting something new.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Your greatest challenge?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Wow there has been many, but we have got through them all!\u00a0\u00a0 If I had to pick one, it may sound a bit clich\u00e9 now, but it would still have to be the period during and just after Covid.\u00a0 \u00a0There were significant store closures at the time and even when business re-started getting back to a normal stock and sales position were all experiences that we had no rule book for.<\/p>\n<p>We are also currently in a challenging retail climate at the moment with continued pressures on consumer spending.\u00a0\u00a0 In sales we have the responsibility to support our customers by adapting our tactics to help our customers succeed.\u00a0 We can do this for example by ensuring we support our customers when buying from us that they are investing in our most loved items.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Proudest moment to date? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Being part of a team where winning supplier of the year for 11 years running has to be a highlight.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Worst move so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t tend to dwell on whether a move was good or bad, it is what was decided at the time.\u00a0 I am always of the mindset that you can always change direction when needed; it may just take a bit longer!<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you think you will be doing in 10 years\u2019 time?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I am at a stage where I don\u2019t think too much about where I will be in 10 years. My main goal is that I will continue to do something I enjoy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Time out\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On the weekends, I try to make the most of my time off, by trying to switch off from work.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I tend to start my days early.\u00a0 This is something I did not fully appreciate doing when I was a bit younger.<\/p>\n<p>I feel when I start the day like this, I get to fit in plenty of activities whether it be going to the gym, pampering myself, eating out or spending time with family and friends.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pet Hate?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Time wasting.<\/p>\n<p><em>You can meet Belinda and the rest of the Wacoal Sales Team at INDX this weekend (9-10 February 2025).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Friday Underlines chats to Belinda Leca, Head of Sales for the UK and Eire at the Wacoal Group.\u00a0Belinda is a \u2018veteran\u2019 of the lingerie sector, having chalked up some&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[500397800,74318],"tags":[500399113],"class_list":["post-57341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-underwear","tag-the-friday-interview-belinda-leca-of-the-wacoal-group"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BL-Photo.jpg?fit=1200%2C1599&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57341"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57351,"href":"https:\/\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57341\/revisions\/57351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underlinesmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}