Retail Area Manager in Newtownabbey

Henderson Group are proud to be one of Northern Ireland's leading employers. Our group employs over 6,000 colleagues and encompasses Henderson Wholesale, Henderson Retail, Henderson Foodservice, Henderson Group Property, and Henderson Technology. We are a family-owned business, and our culture is lived out through our four core values: Ambition, Customer First, Teamwork, and Integrity.

Henderson Retail Ltd., our company-owned store division, is an Investors in People PLATINUM accredited employer, employing more than 4,000 colleagues across 117 retail stores in Northern Ireland. Our business is multi-award winning, and we are committed to continual investment and development, ensuring that our stores are best-in-class, delivering an excellent service to our local communities.

In this role, you will be responsible for leading store teams across a designated area of SPAR/EUROSPAR stores. You will lead and inspire your team to deliver strategic objectives for your area, taking ownership for area financial performance. You will play a key role within our leadership team, as we continue to strengthen our position in the market, and will be influential in key decision-making.

This position will be well suited to a candidate with strong relevant experience from a food retail background and an excellent track record of leading a team to success.

As Area Manager you will:

• Directly lead and inspire a team of retail Store Managers, working to achieve the very best in local community retailing.
• Create the conditions that inspire your store teams to deliver operational excellence and the very best customer experience.
• Influence the financial performance of your stores by successfully managing budgets, targets, and Key Performance Indicators.
• Identify commercial opportunities and engage with stakeholders across the group to enhance overall commercial performance of your group of stores.
• Build a high-performance culture and a talent pipeline for the future.

The minimum criteria you'll need is:

• Proven recent experience from the grocery sector at a leadership level.
• Strong track record of performance success in the food retail sector.
• Commercial awareness of the Northern Ireland convenience/symbol retail marketplace.
• Understanding of profit and loss account dynamics.
• Good standard of education (including GCSE English and Maths at grade C or above, or equivalent).
• Proficiency in using MS Office packages.
• Current driving licence and ability to travel throughout Northern Ireland.

The personal attributes you'll need include:

• A passion for continuous improvement.
• A great relationship builder, with excellent communication and influencing skills.
• Strong ability to plan, organise and prioritise activities.
• Adaptable, resilient and able to lead change in a dynamic environment.
• Capacity to lead a team of 8-12 direct reports.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to report and present insights.

As part of this role, it will be important that you feel aligned with the values that we live and work by:

• Ambition: We always strive to be better.
• Customer First: We provide exceptional service.
• Teamwork: We succeed together.
• Integrity: We are fair, honest and ethical.

The impact you can make with Henderson Group goes far beyond your day-to-day role. You will be part of a business that places the local community at the heart of what we do, and we will encourage you to get involved in areas where you'll make a real difference. Our business has been recognised externally for delivering excellence in employment. We value employee development and heavily invest in our people.

Benefits include market competitive salary, company car or allowance, bonus, contributory pension scheme, healthcare, life assurance, employee assistance programme, social club, staff discount at SPAR/EUROSPAR Henderson Group company-owned stores, and many more.

This is a full-time position working 5 days out of 7 each week on a rota basis. Shortlisted candidates will have an opportunity to discuss working hours in further detail at selection stage.

We are an equal opportunities employer.