Director Franchise - Western Europe (m/f)

Job description

Country: Germany
Job Function: Retail (Back Office)

State / Province: Germany
Position Type: Full time

City / Location: Herzogenaurach
Brand: adidas

Relocation: Yes

Somewhere, in one of our workshops right now, the future is taking shape. We are constantly working to redefine the way clothing and footwear transforms the pitch, court or course. This is what drives us: the feeling of discovery and the urge to innovate. When we create a product that makes our hearts beat faster, we know we’re onto something.

If this sounds inspiring, you might be one of us: Someone who loves to create the present, as well as shape the future. There’s a reason adidas has been at the forefront of defining sport for more than 60 years: We never stand still. Everyday, we work to improve everything we create.

At adidas, interesting, amazing and inspiring aren’t just ideas. They are what we do every single day.

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

This role is responsible for improving the capabilities of our franchise organisation and managers in order to maximise the profitability and guarantee a sustainable growth of the Market Western Europe Franchise business by ensuring the development, facilitation and successful implementation of the Franchise Business model and securing the continuous Improvement of Franchise solutions for all type of accounts.

The post holder will be required to build strong relationships with the key franchise partners, provide leadership to the Franchise teams across the Market achieving a seamless customer mono-branded experience through the sharing of latest tools, information, training and proactive follow-up.

Key Accountabilites

· Driving the WE franchise project. This will include proposing a business model, key milestones to integrate the franchise business into WE Direct To Consumer vertical, key processes and organization.
· Lead the 10 project workstreams and put in place an escalation mechanism if required.
· Facilitate the gathering of reliable store-level sell-out data on a regular basis. This includes information on stock, store size and capacity details.
· Provide transparency and accuracy of the above data at a store and aggregated level to facilitate decision-making.
· Define and set up the organization that will support the development and implementation of the WE Franchise model.
· Develop and implement the Market Western Europe Franchise portfolio plan in line with the SBP 2020 and key cities approach.
· Develop, nurture and maintain relationships with key decision makers amongst partners and influence own senior management team ensuring maximum leverage for brand and products.
· Drive the implementation and execution of the global E2E Franchise Business Model to maintain the brand standards in stores.
· Identify Franchising opportunities and partners jointly with the Cluster Franchise Teams, Managing Directors and Cluster Retail Directors. Operate and manage all day-to-day tasks related to the Franchise business and collaborations. Review the mix and profile of existing Franchise partners and make recommendations as required for new internal or external partners to ensure a continued healthy growth for the Franchise Channel.
· Leverage existing Market and cluster RBO and Franchise teams to support new Franchise openings, new markets, or new formats as required.
· Continue to work on the mindsets of all market and cluster RBO and Franchise teams to ensure a genuinely Mono-Branded approach at all times.
· Provide consultancy across all franchise and retail functions (where necessary) to facilitate franchise partners’ needs.
· Partner and work closely with trade marketing team to develop an integrated and consistent retail marketing & promotional calendar for the franchise channel.
· Group franchisee customers and set objectives, strategies and tactics including translation into action and business plans.
· Allocate resources per group and ensure effective and efficient, tracking specification, negotiation and implementation of action plans covering price adjustments, terms and conditions (no specification). Negotiate and update contracts where necessary.
· In coordination with the cluster/Market Category Merchandising teams, ensure pre- and re-order buying account marketing activities are conducted.
· Monitor sales and achieve targets whilst analyzing sales data to assess new commercial opportunities for driving growth for partner and brand.
· To ensure reliable and cost efficient supply of merchandise and responsiveness to requests and complaints of the Customers.
· Recruit, develop, motivate and lead team of franchise managers to manage different partners & clusters/countries.
· To set personal objectives, targets, guidelines and assess all reports
· To manage all reports as an integrated team by setting team objectives, targets and guidelines
· To ensure smooth cooperation of all direct reports as one team, internally and externally
· Build and implement a governance to manage all reports as an integrated team by setting team objectives, targets and guidelines.
· Monitor and report on customers and competitors activities and propose/initiate/take actions.
· Support realistic plans and forecasts on customer performance.
· Ensure customer compliance with agreements.
· Take responsibility to synergize correct Trade Investments across all clusters to drive profitability and the business model
· Implement Future Market-place project for WE-franchise business with the aid of cluster franchise teams.

Knowledge, Capabilites and Experience

· Strong Team builder - comfortable working in a matrix organization, across boarders/time zones working with a diverse and international group of highly skilled leaders and experts
· Demonstrated experience in team leadership; lead, motivate, and develop high performing teams
· High level of business acumen and financial understanding
· Proven methodological skills (e.g. business planning, strategic development)
· Excellent communication skills including impactful presentation skills, influencing and negotiating and change management
· Geographical mobility and global leadership mind-set
· Fluency in English (written and verbal)
· Another European language desirable
· Understanding of logistics and supply chain
· Forward thinking and entrepreneurial approach
· Excellent business partnering skills and the ability to work closely and cohesively with sales and marketing teams
· Advanced numeracy and literacy, with good IT skills (Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint)

Qualifications

· 3 - 5 years leadership/people management experience
· 8 -10 years sales/franchise operations experience ideally in apparel/fashion/shoes or FMCG
· University degree in business or equivalent relevant business experience
· Previous leadership experience in a Western European franchise role is highly regarded.