At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead retail strategy and empower teams to deliver exceptional customer experiences.
- Company: Join Matalan, a dynamic retail leader with a focus on innovation and teamwork.
- Benefits: Enjoy a competitive salary, car allowance, healthcare, and generous discounts.
- Other info: Flexible working environment with opportunities for career growth and development.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in retail while developing your leadership skills.
- Qualifications: Proven experience in retail leadership and strong commercial acumen required.
The predicted salary is between 60000 - 80000 £ per year.
Salary: Competitive + Car Allowance & Benefits
Working Pattern: Full Time
Contract Type: Permanent
As a Head of Retail, you’ll set the strategic direction for part of Matalan’s UK store estate in the South, empowering Regional Managers to deliver strong commercial results, operational excellence and an exceptional omni-channel customer experience. You will play a pivotal role in representing retail across the business, enhancing cross-functional alignment and ensuring the retail perspective informs key decisions and drives performance. Reporting directly to the Chief Retail Officer (CRO) and working alongside your fellow Head of Retail, you’ll drive leadership across retail with pace, consistency, commerciality and accountability. This role will be a mix of spending that precious time with your store teams out on the road, home working for the days that require project work, and time at our Support Hub in Knowsley to help you stay connected – All in perfect balance.
Key Responsibilities
- Retail strategy and execution: Lead the operational delivery of Matalan’s retail strategy across your regions, aligned to the 5-year plan and key business priorities. Drive consistent execution of the retail plan through one best way, ensuring strong EBITDA performance and high standards of visual execution. Translate strategic goals into clear operational actions that drive performance, consistency and a great customer experience across all stores. Own performance across key retail KPIs including sales, profit, productivity, customer satisfaction and colleague engagement. Own the execution of the new and refresh store programme across regions, as a key part of the business strategy. Drive agility and pace, adapting interventions to meet local performance trends, customer needs and opportunities. Own and lead Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) across regions, ensuring robust performance discussions, clear accountability and aligned action plans that address risks, unlock opportunities and deliver the business plan.
- Leadership and Team Development: Lead, coach and inspire a team of Regional Managers, building a high‑performing, commercially capable leadership team. Create a culture of continuous learning, inclusion and accountability where leaders feel empowered to make decisions and lead with confidence. Strengthen succession across retail by identifying, developing and retaining high‑potential talent and building out the long‑term succession for our new stores and future pipeline. Role‑model and lead Matalan’s values through consistent, purposeful leadership, setting the cultural tone across retail and championing the values as they are launched across the business. Champion colleague engagement and ensure teams feel supported, connected and valued.
- Customer and Commercial Focus: Drive a customer‑first mindset, raising standards and ensuring a consistently great shopping experience. Lead commercial execution across regions, partnering with buying, customer and visual merchandising (VM) teams to activate campaigns and tailor activity to customer needs. Hold full P & L responsibility for your regions, identifying opportunities to improve cost, productivity and profitability. Influence pricing, promotional and trading decisions through clear insight and regional expertise.
- Operational Excellence: Collaborate with the Director of Retail Operations to embed “One Best Way” processes, enabling consistency, efficiency and high‑quality execution. Use insight and data to drive continuous improvement, simplify processes and remove barriers to performance. Lead delivery of the shrink, risk and compliance agenda across stores, ensuring strong governance and ownership to deliver the shrink plan. Ensure operational readiness for new store formats, technology enhancements and future omnichannel capabilities. Maintain retail business continuity, ensuring smooth and effective day‑to‑day operations.
- Cross‑functional Collaboration: Act as the primary retail interface into key business areas, ensuring retail has a strong voice in shaping initiatives, decisions and priorities. Work closely with property and store development on store refreshes, new openings and site plans. Collaborate with trading, customer, VM, finance, people and supply chain to ensure retail considerations are embedded early and decisions land effectively in stores. Represent retail in business‑wide planning forums, ensuring stores are set up to deliver new models, trials and transformation activity.
KPIs and Measures of Success
- Stores sales and EBITDA performance
- Commercial KPIs
- Customer satisfaction and NPS
- Shrink and risk compliance
- Colleague engagement and leadership capability
- Regional consistency, pace and quality of execution
Experience
- Leadership and growth planning: Beneficial experience would be to have worked in a similar level role in a Retail / Fashion business, to help you hit the ground running from the outset. Experience leading large‑scale, multi‑site retail operations across multiple regions with accountability for commercial and people performance. Proven track record of building and developing high‑performing teams and driving empowerment and accountability with senior leaders. Experience shaping and embedding culture across a dispersed workforce. Strong experience partnering with senior stakeholders up to board level on business decisions, change programmes and investment priorities.
- Commercial acumen: Strong commercial instincts with the ability to interpret insight, drive action and influence change at pace. Deep understanding of store operations and the levers that drive sales, profit and customer experience. Demonstrated ability to optimise P & L performance through cost control, productivity improvements and commercial activation.
- Collaboration and stakeholder management: Skilled at influencing senior stakeholders and working collaboratively across functions. Proven experience delivering cross‑functional projects and landing operational change effectively. Strong, clear communication skills with the ability to engage, align and challenge when needed.
- Analytical and insight‑driven: Demonstrates deep capability in analysing data, insight and customer feedback to diagnose root causes and inform high‑quality decisions. Able to simplify complexity, identify root causes and communicate clear actions.
Benefits
- Car or Car Allowance
- Generous Company Bonus
- Healthcare – Self and Family
- Great pension
- Birthday Early Finish
- Volunteering day
- 20% Discount for you and a friend
- Lot's more..
Head of Retail - South in Windsor employer: Matalan
Matalan is an exceptional employer that prioritises employee growth and development, offering a dynamic work culture where leaders are empowered to make impactful decisions. With a competitive salary, generous benefits including a car allowance, and a commitment to fostering a customer-first mindset, Matalan provides a supportive environment for its employees to thrive in the retail sector. The role of Head of Retail in the South not only allows for strategic influence across multiple regions but also encourages collaboration and innovation within a vibrant team atmosphere.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Head of Retail - South in Windsor
✨Get Your Retail Game On
Start by getting to know the local retail scene. Make a list of stores that align with your vibe and visit them. You'll be surprised at how many job openings come from chatting with staff or managers in-store. Plus, showing that you have a genuine interest in their brand can make you stand out when applying for that full-time role!
✨Join Retail Networks and Forums
Tap into retail-specific communities and forums, whether online or in-person. Platforms like Retail Week or local retail meetups can provide invaluable insights and connections. You never know who might drop a tip about an upcoming job at companies like Matalan, so don’t miss out on building those relationships!
✨Be Ready for Busy Season Opportunities
Keep your eyes peeled for seasonal hiring windows, especially in the run-up to major shopping periods. Retailers often look for full-time staff to carry through busy times and may even keep you on after the season. Stay proactive by regularly checking in with your favourite retailers about their hiring plans.
✨Show Off Your Customer Service Skills
Retail’s all about customer interactions, so make sure you showcase any relevant experience in your conversations and interviews. Share specific examples of your customer service skills and how they’ve led to positive outcomes. This is your moment to shine when applying to roles at places like Matalan!
We think you need these skills to ace Head of Retail - South in Windsor
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show Off Your Customer Service Skills:In retail, customer service is key! Make sure your CV highlights any experience where you've dealt with customers, whether it’s resolving issues or enhancing the shopping experience. Use concrete examples to demonstrate your problem-solving skills and ability to handle difficult situations with ease.
Tailor Your CV for Retail:When applying for a full-time role like this one at Matalan, customise your CV to reflect retail-specific buzzwords. Include any relevant skills such as inventory management or visual merchandising, and if you have experience with POS systems, shout about it! This will show you’re serious about joining the retail team.
Craft a Genuine Cover Letter:Don’t just repeat your CV in your cover letter! Use it as a chance to explain why you're excited about the opportunity at Matalan and how your values align with their brand. Mention specific aspects of the company that resonate with you and let your enthusiasm shine through!
Highlight Your Adaptability:In retail, things can get busy and unpredictable, so demonstrate how adaptable and flexible you are. Share examples of times you've had to adjust your approach on the fly or take on new responsibilities. This will show Matalan that you’re ready to jump in and contribute right away!
How to prepare for a job interview at Matalan
✨Show Off Your Customer Service Skills
Retail is all about providing an exceptional customer experience, so be ready to discuss your past customer service stories. We should have examples on hand of how we've handled difficult situations or gone above and beyond to meet a customer's needs. These anecdotes will bring your application to life!
✨Familiarity with Point of Sale Systems
Many retail roles require us to work with Point of Sale (POS) systems, so it's a good idea to brush up on any relevant software you’ve used before. If you’re familiar with systems like Shopify or Square, don’t forget to mention this during the interview. Highlighting technical proficiency can set us apart from other candidates!
✨Understand Product Knowledge
Be prepared to discuss the products that the store sells and how we can contribute to their sales. Showing enthusiasm for the products and a willingness to learn can impress interviewers. We should research popular items or trends in the industry before the interview, so we can speak confidently about them.
✨Be Ready for Role-Playing Scenarios
Many retail interviews include role-playing scenarios where we might have to deal with a difficult customer or upsell a product. Practising these scenarios with a friend or family member can help us feel more comfortable. The key here is to showcase our problem-solving skills and ability to remain calm under pressure!
