An exciting opportunity has arisen within Travel Retail West to appoint a Senior Area Sales and Operations Manager who will be responsible for the business across MEIA, specifically collaborating with DDF & Inflight.

The Senior Area Sales and Operations Manager will support the Regional Director and be a key contributor to the retail business plan, profit and loss input, and the ongoing retail strategy plus three year long range planning for the region. This role is primarily field-based and the successful candidate must be comfortable with frequent travel.

Key responsibilities include:

• Planning and achievement of Retail Sales plans and targets for the Area/Retailer
• Regular visits to major doors to ensure standards and objectives are achieved as well as to assess key opportunities to further maximise sales and profitability
• Provide retail sales reports and ad-hoc analysis as required
• Successful execution of retail activations at store level with regular productive liaison with retail operations
• Accountability of the overall brand appearance and exposure in the region, collaborating with the Sales and Education Executive and Visual Merchandising team
• Recruitment, management and development of Sales and Education Executive, succession planning, training and demo productivity review
• Close co-ordination with Corporate Account Manager and Education partners on needs, execution and results
• Excellent understanding in skills to drive sales at retail
• Review, report and advise on space and location opportunities for JML Cluster.
• Collaborate with the Corporate Account Manager and Integrated Marketing team on opportunities within the airport and support agreed initiatives with the retail partner
• Awareness of trade and market developments, monitor competitor activity and report information on brand, category and department performance on a regular basis to the Regional Brand Director and Corporate Account Manager.

Qualifications

The role requires substantial professional retail sales management expertise across multiple countries, ideally within MEIA and preferably with Travel Retail, and/or perfume and cosmetics experience.

The successful candidate will have an excellent track record in the achievement of multi-site retail sales targets through the leadership, management and development of their direct reports. They will also be able to demonstrate an excellent history of strong negotiation and people management skills using effective emotional intelligence to best manage whilst respecting cultural differences and provide high touch customer service to achieve objectives. The role also requires candidates to have sound knowledge of proficient business/commercial/IT/financial acumen as well as the ability to establish and maintain excellent professional and productive business relationships with the retail partners. Flexibility to travel is also essential.

The following list of skills are also highly desirable:

• Ability to work independently
• Sound understanding and experience in retail sales management and commercial acumen
• Customer service focused
• Excellent communication skills
• Excellent organisational skills
• Good knowledge of MS Office tools, especially Excel.

Travel Retail is a fast-paced, dynamic and entrepreneurial environment and candidates should have a positive, flexible, hands-on and committed approach.