Head of Retail

As Head of Retail, you have an in-depth understanding of the company´s overall strategy and ambition and thus drive the business, act and always communicate in alignment. This core responsibility of this role is: managing and driving sales objectives, ensuring that our clients are always met with the highest level of service and hospitality, develops and fosters the growth of people in order to meet long term organizational needs and maintains the highest operational standards of Acne Studio’s policies.

The Head of Retail for North America reports to the Global Retail Director and is based out of the NYC Corporate office. Extensive travel is required; therefore, you must have the ability to travel domestically, occasionally within short notice and can expect to travel internationally at a minimum of 4 times a year.

Responsibilities will include but not be limited to

Sales management

• Provide input on budgeting processes, such as sales forecast, headcount requirements, financial requirements etc.
• Develop and implement action plans to grow the business. Such as: targeting clientele categories, incentive programs, slow movers etc.
• Monitor and communicate local trading environment and trends, including competition, tourism, and consumer trends.
• Communicate the stores objectives and goals to the teams in your area.
• Ensure sales budgets and KPI goals are meet.
• Analyzing sales figures and other key performance indicators to act when required

Client experience

• Ensure that the studios and teams are working by the Acne Selling Ceremony.
• Identify areas for improvement and work together with management to conduct ongoing training and development of the staff.
• Work with HQ to identify and implement appropriate clienteling actions for your markets.
• Work with VIC strategy to support our brand image and business growth.

Team Management and development

• Communicate vision, strategy and clear direction to retail teams.
• Support the store teams and managers in all aspects of the business.
• Continuously coach and provide feedback to your teams.
• Support your store leaders in developing detailed staffing strategies and lead the personal development strategies of your store leaders.
• Maintain your talent pipeline through recruitment, rotation, mobility, training and development and succession planning.

Operations

• Oversee day-to-day operations of the store in the network and solve operational issues.
• Lease with suppliers and ensure optimal and cost-efficient conditions.
• Secure overall cost control for your market in line with OPEX budgets.
• Set and follow up the Acne studios standards and quality expectations within the stores on monthly basis
• Secure inventory and correct stock levels, maintain inventory discrepancies on the lowest level possible
• Work with buying and merchandising to ensure that each studio has the right stock package to meet customer needs according to the market and in relation to sales.
• Work with HQ and Global Retail Director in negotiations of existing and new retail locations.

You

To be successful in the role, you are passionate about client service and experience. You are focused but never completely satisfied – you are always striving for improvement. You delegate responsibility in a balanced way, see yourself as part of a team and act as a role model and ambassador for the brand – you respect your team and coworkers to are open minded in all aspects. To meet the demands of developing strategies via strong cross-functional teamwork, requires an individual who is adaptable, detail oriented, with excellent communication skills.

This knowledge will enable you to collaborate with Headquarters, such as proposing local activations, implement activations when approved and overall developing market specific plans.

• Solid management background with at least 7-10 years of store managing experience for a high-end brand. Experience in leading other managers in multiple units is a requirement.
• Organized and structured with ability to set structure, routines and processes.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment.
• Proficiency in Excel / Word / Outlook.