Brand Director, HK-TW

Job description

MISSION

 

The brand Director is in charge of the development and performance of the brand under his/her responsibility, for the HK and TW markets. He/She is the Brand ambassador and representative with landlords, commercial partners, End-clients and the Richemont organization in the region. Fully responsible of the P&L.

 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES  

 

Driving Sales  

·  Overall responsibility and accountability for building and driving the business to deliver the required budgets and profitability for his/her region 
·  Effectively manage the delivery of both sales and excellent customer service, by putting the necessary efforts to keep improving our first line 
·  Manage and drive the KPIs of traffic, conversion, ATV, UPT and other commercial metrics within the retail channel to maximize sales and service levels across each of the stores in the region 
·  Continually improve productivity levels per door, turning around non profitable doors and maximise top doors.
·  Ensure that brand presentation is up to standards in terms of product, in-store displays and visual merchandising, pricing, and windows, in retail channels across all markets
·  Define and deliver on-brand initiatives to achieve and beat budgets in each of the stores within the region.

 

 

Business Development

·  Set and execute the appropriate distribution strategy for each country
·  Optimize the retail network in the APAC markets, with the support of the HQ team
·  Animate retail activities through implementation of retail action plans for the boutiques
·  Maintain close control over distribution network to ensure that the brand is well represented and promoted
·  Develop close relationship with the key players within the industry (landlords, wholesalers etc.)

 

Leadership

·  Inspire and nurture a high performing team, to deliver retail excellence in clientelling, services and growth in sales.
·  Ensure staffing at all times are optimized to deliver excellent client focused service, in terms of product knowledge, attitude, sales and service skills.
·  Build a high performing team: Identify development needs and liaise with the retail training team to bridge the gaps. 
·  Participate in decision-making process regarding compensation and benefits with local HR / HQ HR, maintaining within budget and securing top talent.
·  With the support of Richemont local HR platform implement Group/Maison HR policies and procedures.

 

 

Run the Operations

·  Develop an annual plan, in line with Brand strategy:
·  Analyze specific market and brand positioning
·  Establish sales objectives and sales margin
·  Develop a commercial policy and coordinate and control the development of the different distribution channels (Retail/wholesale, Corporate gift…)
·  Product Assortment:
·  Provide quantitative and qualitative data on customer profile and boutique typology to the HQ Merchandising team
·  Maintain adequate and efficient inventory levels to support the business development, in collaboration with the Merchandising team
·  Support and coordinate products / collection launches on the market
·  Administer price and discount policies

 

·  Communication & marketing:
·  Oversee the local implementation across all markets of key marketing initiatives delivered by the central marketing team 
·  Definition of briefs (media plan, promotion, local PR), supervise realization and operational implementation, in coordination with local partners and HQ
·  Handle business contacts with the different external (and/or internal) agencies: advertising, PR etc.
·  Take responsibility for and ensure efficient administration of the communication policy, in total respect of image constraints.

 

·  Training:
·  Ensure that staffing is at all times optimized to deliver retail excellence, focused on being client obsessed in constantly improving the experience and service in store.
·  Ensure all team members are fully engaged and focused on delivering the brand vision and strategy.
·  Identify development needs and liaise with the L&D team to bridge the gaps 
·  Ensure frontline teams are properly trained in line with brand standards, product knowledge and clienteling approach.

 

·  Clientele & CRM :
·  Collaborate with the global CRM team to define and execute actions to recruit new clients and increase the loyalty of the existing ones
·  Improve client knowledge at store level and between store and HQ
·  Fully utilize the clienteling app and make it an essential tool on the shop floor
·  Continue to improve data capture in store, including educating teams on approach to capturing data.
·  Build a strong portfolio of VICs for the region and know them
·  Implement and ascertain Maison’s customer service policy is respected to ensure customer satisfaction and professional handling of any complaints.

 

 

Drive Resources

·  Identify & define resources in human and financial capital:

Based on brand objectives to achieve:

·  Define local brand structure and organization, manage within budget (Total Cost and FTE).
·  Continue to refine the organization in terms of efficiencies in structure and ways of working, to improve speed to market.
·  Define operational processes in collaboration with Richemont shared services platform
·  Identify capital expenditures and inventory levels required to support the business development

 

Financial Plan

·  Be fully accountable & responsible of your Regional P&L:
·   including above the line,  gross margin and cost control to improve profitability for the region.
·  Build financial plan:
·  In collaboration with HQ and Richemont FP&A, including Regional Maison P&L, for budget, monitoring closely latest trend.
·  Manage lease renewals
·  Produce annual budgets and quarterly re-forecasts for the Region 
·  Ensure that Gross Margin and Profit targets for the region are met and that costs are controlled. 
·  Monitor financial performance of the Maison locally:
·  Review actual performances analysis on revenue, margin and expense
·  Coordinate necessary corrective actions to ensure that actual performances meet budget objectives

 

Manage other back office activities

·  Liaise with relevant Richemont & Maison department to coordinate activities in respect to: IT, Logistics, Security and Legal
·  Ensure that operations are performed in compliance with Richemont & Maison policies and procedures
·  Act as main point of contact for Boutique audits and Internal Audit

 

 

 

 

 

  EDUCATION  

 

University degree minimum.

 

 

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE  

·  Strong retail experience & expertise in driving retail excellence
·  Solid experience, within luxury industry and outside of luxury industry.  Significant face to face sales experience with luxury products – retail & wholesale
·  Experience in know-how to drive omnichannel across the region, an advantage
·  Proven experience of partnering and negotiating top-to-top with large key accounts 
·  Proven experience of building, influencing and maintain strong relationships internally and externally. 
·  Proven strategic & operational experience and an understanding of how to develop, and strengthen a brands image within market, leveraging influential company representatives 
·  Demonstrated ability to over-achieve sales targets 
·  Proven experience in turning around a region’s overall performance and profitability.
·  Multilingual in English and Mandarin/Cantonese an advantage

 

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS  

·  Client focused
·  A retailer with a strong experience in engaging and inspiring both retail teams and clients
·  A fighter who doesn’t accept no as an answer, seeks solutions to complex issues.
·  An adventurer who doesn’t hesitate to look for alternative options to build revenue in a qualitative way
·  Strong leadership skills 
·  Impressive communication skills - highly developed persuasive, influencing and negotiating skills 
·  Ability to work in an international environment, with a proactive collaborative approach to delivering results, and a "can do" attitude that gets the best out of the people around them, nurturing talent.
·  Entrepreneurial spirit - Ability to think out of the box and to create and drive new initiatives in order to exceed objectives 
·  Enjoys presenting in front of small to large audiences, information and ideas clearly, succinctly, in both formal and informal situations.
·  An ambassador of the brand - Ability to promote and represent the brand as its ambassador within market.