Area Manager Victoria\'s Secret, London and South Region

Location: 4 days in store, 1 day remote or office. 2 days in London stores.

Working hours: 9am - 5pm Monday to Friday (1 in 4 Saturdays with 1 day off in the week - Tues, Weds or Thurs).

Job Purpose

A brand ambassador ensuring effective communication of the brand culture and values internally and externally. Deliver and exceed sales targets across multiple retail locations & formats through recruitment, training, development and retention of high performing teams who are focused on delivering an exceptional customer experience.

Primary Responsibilities

• Commercial Decision Making
  • Work alongside the Regional Manager to deliver the retail and wider company strategy.
  • Responsible for delivering the P&L plan and KPIs for the Area, focusing on owning payroll & controllable costs and maximising sales and profitability.
  • Responsible for taking proactive action to minimise risk in the Area relating to P&L performance, stock loss, cash handling and payroll.
  • Create clear plans for each store, linked to KPIs and data to ensure opportunities are maximised and poor performance is addressed including service, operations, profit, people, sales, manhours.
  • Use data and statistical analysis on the area to challenge and influence the business to make strategic decisions including but not limited to stock package, marketing & visual presentations.
  • Act as a Business partner with key strategic functions i.e. Visual, Operations, Finance, HR and Marketing to support an agile and results driven decision making process, being the strategic link to Retail and formalising processes to support the relationships.
  • Manage new store openings and closures to maximise commercial performance and minimise disruption to employees, customers and trade.
  • Fully conversant in all aspects of company profit, including external factors and makes impactful decisions beyond today.
• Brand and Customer Focus
  • Ensure visual standards across the area are set to the company standards and always executed with the customer experience with clear distortions to best at categories; Bras & Fragrance.
  • Build a store environment that is focused on continuous improvement and delivering an exceptional bespoke customer experience that is centred around the brand values.
  • Manage customer queries, feedback and mystery shops, identifying trends and local opportunities to improve customer experience and maximise commercial performance.
• People and Talent Development
  • Lead and manage the Store Manager population within the allocated area, and other areas when covering.
  • Own the People KPI targets for the area, ensuring key KPIs are maintained and decreased where appropriate.
  • Responsible for employee wellbeing and engagement across stores, creating regular opportunities to listen to employee feedback to gain valuable insight and make positive improvements to employee and customer experience.
  • Recruitment of Store Management roles across the area, and support recruitment of lower level management roles when required.
  • Conduct performance and development reviews with the management teams in the area, ensuring managers are supported, developed and their individual performance is managed appropriately.
  • Responsible for ensuring a robust training and succession plan is in place for the designed district (and surrounding areas).
  • Guiding on all employee relations issues within the area, ensuring appropriate policies and procedures are followed and advice is taken from the People Team as and when required.
  • Encourages inclusion & diversity in the district culture they create; building trust and encouraging diversity of thinking without fear and creating environments where people can be empowered. Engaging with D&I initiatives that are rolled out across the district.
• Planning and Delivery
  • Act as a liaison between stores and head office functions ensuring that commercial and operational opportunities in the area are always maximised.
  • Identify when Stores are in need of in-store support, planning and re-prioritising their demands to provide greater levels of support when required.
  • Lead and manage stocktakes, repricing, sales and promotions across the area, liaising with Head Office functions i.e. operations where support is required.
  • Own the stock control processes across the area, ensuring compliance to minimise risk and loss across the district.
  • Responsible for ensuring all employees across the area act safely at work and is compliant on all policies, including health and safety, audit and compliance procedures.

Skills and Experience

• Experience in a fast paced retail environment at a similar level with a record of maximising sales and profit.
• Able to handle a rapid flow of information & share it succinctly with relevant teams.
• Actively looks for opportunities to self-develop by seeking new experiences.
• Takes accountability for managing company projects ensuring the end result achieves a positive outcome.
• Is creative and thinks differently to come up with and implement new business solutions and ideas.
• Interpersonal skills that can be used to lead teams and build and develop valued relationships across the business.
• Adaptable and flexible with the ability to deliver results personally and through others.
• Leadership and coaching skills with experience of succession planning and people development.
• Lead with integrity, honesty and an approach that is aligned to the company values.
• Embraces change and open to new ideas and ways of working.
• Resilient and resourceful with a creative nature when working on projects and designing incentives.
• Organisational and planning skills.
• Verbal and written communication skills, with excellent attention to detail.
• High standard of integrity and discretion.

The above responsibilities are an overview of the role and its responsibilities, the list is not exhaustive and additional responsibilities may be required from time to time.