Manager, Range & Micro Space

Apply on JLP Jobs – the official careers website for John Lewis Partnership, John Lewis & Partners, and Waitrose & Partners.

About the role

The Manager, Range and Micro Space is responsible for leading and cultivating a team of high performing Range Analyst Planners (RAPs) and Space Planners (SPs) to deliver range assortments and planograms that optimise sales, enhance the customer shopping experience and deliver operational improvements in branches.You will lead, coach and mentor a diverse team, driving clustered range development tailored to various branch sizes through robust data analysis and market insights and customer-centric planograms that enhance the customers shopping experience. You and your team will monitor performance against key objectives and use findings to further improve and develop ranges and planogramsYou will also work closely with various stakeholders across the business such as retail, Heads of CPG, Trading and Category Managers to ensure strategic alignment and to be the specialist voice for Range and Micro Space. You will also actively play a part in shaping and implementing the Range and Micro Space Strategy. By analysing opportunity areas, you will provide input to the overall strategy, and then translate this into actionable plans for your specific areas of responsibility.

• Expected salary – £71,400 to £92,000

• Contract type – This position is a Permanent contract.

• Working pattern/flexible working – The Partnership has adopted a hybrid working approach, meaning you\’ll be able to work a mixture between the office and home based upon your personal needs whilst balancing the needs of the business. The Space and Range Management team aim for around 3 days a week in the office to connect and on a more ad-hoc basis to attend key meetings.

• Location – This role is based at our Bracknell Head Office, with an expectation to travel to other locations as the role requires e.g. Shops and Supplier premises.

Key responsibilities

Developing and leading teams: Manage, coach and mentor a diverse team of partners, helping them grow their careers and reach their full potential. Provide guidance and feedback on their personal development, setting clear expectations and goals and providing regular feedback. Utilise the SRF Activity and Development Manager to identify training needs within the team and set up training to support

Range Development: Leading the RAPs & SPs to analyse sales data, market trends and customer insights to develop and refine product ranges from Minimum Credible Range in our smallest, to full range in our largest branches, that deliver for our customers, commercially for Waitrose and operationally for branches

Planogram Creation and Implementation: Lead the team to develop accurate planograms that deliver for the customer, commercially for Waitrose and operationally for our branches. Ensure planograms adhere to our display principles, culminating in planograms that are easy to shop and execute within branches.

Monitor and evaluate performance: Monitor and analyse range review objectives via sales data, space utilisation and planogram performance, ensuring this is built into the RAPs and SPs way of working. Able to identify and clearly communicate the key opportunities, wins and better ifs in your areas of responsibility. Use data to inform decisions regarding range development and planogram optimisation.

Range and Space Activity Planner (Range Reviews): Works alongside the SRF Activity Manager to ensure that Range Review windows are in place to deliver against the SRF identified and business priority areas. Ensuring that workload is balanced for both the team and retail. Target a reduction in windows, with a prioritisation of windows that drive commercial, customer and operation successes.

Implementation and co-creation of Range and Micro Space Strategy for your area: Working with the Manager, Range and Micro Space Strategy and Performance to feed into (based on your analysis of opportunity areas) and feedback on an overarching Range and Micro Space Strategy for Waitrose. Interpret the overall strategy into the “so what” for your areas of responsibility and deliver this via your team.

Cross Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Category Management, Heads of CPG, Trading Managers and merchandising. Establishing regular contact points and ways of working to highlight Range and Micro Space strategy and opportunities, understand other teams priorities and collaborate on a joint delivery plan as well as prioritising the workload of the team

Collaboration with Retail: Work closely with retail to establish a true working relationship, ensuring great execution in branches and a robust communication and feedback route for all points of a range review journey – Range Review Kick off, progress Update, Sign off, Implementation etc

Space Optimisation: Work with the key stakeholders such as Macro Space, Store Planning and Formats to identify opportunities to improve inputs into space models, improve product adjacencies and create effective product flow

Innovation and Continuous Improvement: Own and optimise business processes, frameworks, and tools within the area, while simultaneously cultivating a culture of innovation and continuous improvement that explores new opportunities and enhances efficiency, profitability, and sales across the estate

Essential skills/experience you’ll need

• Exceptional space and range knowledge across range clustering and range and planogram building.

• Exceptional communication and presentation skills, both written and verbal

• Strong leadership and people development skills, with a proven track record of building and developing high performance teams

• Proven stakeholder management. Ability to establish strong cross-functional working relationships and influencing of senior Partners

• Excellent project management skills,with experience of leading cross-functional teams and manage multiple initiatives simultaneously

Desirable skills/experience you may have

• Strong analytical and problem solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex data, find the “So What” and succinctly communicate this and make strategic recommendations

• Experience in developing a short, medium and long term strategy, with the ability to think critically and strategically, with a focus on delivering results.

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The partnership

We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect.

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective.

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.

Important points to note:

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.

We also recommend that you apply as soon as possible as vacancies can close early if we see a high number of applicants.

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.

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