Area Manager - South East in Kingston upon Thames

At Crew Clothing, we believe clothes are about so much more than “just clothes”. Designed with the spirit of the south coast in every stitch, our crossed oars are a mark of timeless British style. These are clothes for life’s best moments. We believe in collaboration, kindness and creativity, in celebrating our successes and championing our customer at every step of the way. From ’93 to now, people have been at the heart of everything we do. It’s in our name – Crew.

Purpose of the role:

The purpose of the Area Manager role is to manage the daily operations across multiple retail stores, and deputising for Heads of Retail when appropriate. The Area Manager is responsible for implementing a strategic plan to drive sales and service standards whilst maintaining operational efficiency across multiple stores. The role involves recruitment, retention and development in order to build a co-operative team in each store; leading each Crew team to drive improvement across service, visual and operational standards.

Our Area Managers…

• Are an instrumental part of the Crew Clothing culture and the success of the business.
• Take ownership in bringing the Crew Clothing Values and culture to life in their own store.
• Understand and feel passionate about Crew Clothing and our customers and will continuously strive to grow and improve their stores' sales and service performance.
• Manage their people and the processes that make Crew Clothing customer experience amazing in-store, wherever and however the customer chooses to buy.
• Are brand ambassadors and an inspirational leader, growing and nurturing their teams with succession and future growth in mind.
• Always lead their store to operate at its best and leads by example.
• Are team players, who work hard, are reliable and operate with pace and integrity.
• Are creative thinkers, able to use their own initiative to make decisions.

Responsibilities:

Commercial

• Implement a strategic plan to improve performance across multiple retail stores.
• Thorough review of each store's P&L, taking action to improve results.
• Maximize sales through consistent approach to service and selling across all stores.
• Efficient approach to operational activity across multiple stores to reduce costs.
• Review staffing and payroll costs to drive improvement in CTS across stores.

Customer/Brand/VM

• Culture of service first approach across all stores.
• Ensure brand visual standards are an integral part of the day to day running of the business – stock management through to maintenance of shop floor.
• Ensure efficient use of scheduling across multiple stores to drive a consistent approach to service.
• Full understanding of customer profile across multiple stores, ensuring teams are giving a consistent level of service.
• Review and observe team engagement with customer – suggesting areas of improvement.
• Act as service ambassador when visiting each store – leading by example.
• Review marketing activity and local events to engage with local customer.

Team

• Lead by example to ensure teams reflect Crew brand values and behaviours.
• Proactive approach to recruitment, actively seeking new talent to bring into the business.
• Recruit the best talent into stores, ensuring we retain and develop teams to drive internal succession across stores.
• Ensure training and development is consistent across stores.
• Thoroughly review team performance and maintain a cluster talent map, ensuring we have future talent in the business.
• Performance review – ensure teams receive appraisals as per company procedure.
• PDP’s are in place to retain and succession plan whilst taking a proactive approach to performance concerns.
• Scheduling – cross reference multiple stores schedules ensuring right people, right place, right time.
• Consistent approach to scheduling and team structure across stores.

Operations

• Maintain an efficient and consistent approach to all store operations.
• Suggest areas for improvement across cluster and wider business.
• Maintenance – thorough review of store to ensure any issues reported appropriately.
• BOH – consistent approach to BOH standards – cleaning and stock management.
• Replenishment – implement and maintain effective stock management process across stores.
• Effective use of business tools across all stores to drive consistency and efficiency.

Key Skills & Experience

• Sound commercial acumen - evidence of driving sales turnover of £1m+ whilst maintaining cost control.
• Sales and target driven – ability to benchmark against company performance.
• Customer first approach.
• Excellent VM standards used to support area approach to VM.
• Evidence of developing team structures and succession planning.
• Excellent communication skills with team, peers and stakeholders.