Vice President Of Retail

Vice President of Retail

The Vice President of Retail will be responsible for managing all aspects of our clients 100+ retail stores globally. The VP of Retail will be critical to driving their reinvigorated brand strategy to bring new customers into leathercrafting and the brand, continuing the transformation of our stores into engaging high-service environments and optimizing the retail economics. Their retail stores differentiate them from competition – they are their competitive advantage – and are absolutely critical to long-term growth.

To leverage this competitive advantage, they have completely reinvented their Retail team – the roles and responsibilities of virtually everyone in the Retail Division have evolved. They’ve raised the level of professionalism in the Retail organization with extensive training, mentoring, career and professional development, and recruiting and compensation. This was the first critical phase in their vision to improve their consumer proposition significantly, and still have a lot of work to do to achieve this vision. They need a Retail leader who can jump in and roll up his/her sleeves, work collaboratively with the senior team to continue to shape the vision, and motivate and lead the Retail staff through major changes, all while maintaining a deep connection to customers.

JOB TITLE

Vice President of Retail

REPORTS TO

Chief Executive Officer

LOCATION

Fort Worth, Texas

EXPECTED TRAVEL

>50%, including travel to Canada

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

· Full P&L responsibility for the Retail Division – including 90+ stores in the US, 10 stores in Canada, and 1 store in Spain

· Develop detailed plans for each store to maximize sales and profitability, with specific performance improvement plans to bring underperforming stores up to expectations – collaborate with business partners to execute these plans.

· Work with Executive Leadership Team and other senior leaders to evaluate and assess real estate; drive decision-making.

· Work with Human Resources to continue to grow the internal talent pipeline and create and execute an external recruiting strategy.

· Manage and grow retail training programs, including leathercrafting, product knowledge, customer service and sales training, and people management.

· Develop and execute new retail standards for housekeeping, labor scheduling and management, customer experience, inventory management, and day-to-day retail operations.

· Work collaboratively with Marketing and Product Management to develop and execute visual merchandising standards, including all signage, story-telling, and cross-channel (e.g., digital) consistency.

· Work collaboratively with Marketing and Finance to develop and execute store upgrades and capital improvements, metrics for ROI, and a detailed roll-out plan

· Work collaboratively with Marketing and Product Management to continue to test and grow our new Military initiatives (on-base retail stores) and community outreach/institution-focused initiatives, including directly managing team members in these roles.

· Support Marketing in developing and executing a new customer loyalty program.

· Recruit, develop, manage, motivate, and retain excellent retail talent – develop and promote career paths for Retail Division employees.

· Expected travel: >50%, including travel to Canada

ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS

· 10+ years of direct retail management experience, preferably in specialty retail, smaller or unique formats, and must include management of multiple stores

· Must have direct P&L responsibility as a multi-manager for at least 3-5 years; must have strong financial and analytical skills

· Proven experience in managing a large retail organization through significant change

· Personal leadership qualities – must have a known reputation for integrity, fairness, open-mindedness, and deep respect for all employees

· MUST be highly collaborative, with the ability to work in partnership with all levels of the organization

· Bias toward action backed up by rigorous logic and analysis

· Strong written and verbal communication skills