Area Support Shop Manager (Surrey/Sussex)

Company	Fight For SightSee more
Address	London, Greater London
Form of work	Full-time
Salary	£35,000 - £45,000 per year
Category	Administrative

Job description

JOB DESCRIPTION AND PERSON SPECIFICATION

We are looking to recruit an exceptional Area Manager to provide direction and leadership to support the continued modernization and growth our retail operations. The Area Manager will support a passionate and committed retail team to deliver profit, promote fundraising and support eye health and public awareness. They will ensure that the business is run in a robust, transparent, compliant and efficient way in line with our values – whilst contributing expertise and energy to the wider charity.

Responsible to

Director of Retail

Direct reports

15 Shop Managers (direct)

Working hours and contract

Full time/permanent

Salary

£35,000 - £45,000 plus full travel expenses

Location

Central & Greater London

Start date

September 2024

Role Responsibilities:

Strategy, planning and growth

· Track progress against plans and budgets, and Support Shop teams to adapt, phase and prioritise work where appropriate.

· Ensure that broad and long-term thinking is brought to decision making and avoid reactionary behaviour, whilst capitalising on arising opportunities.

· Support the delivery of a five-year Retail Strategy (2024 – 2028), to include:

o The professionalisation of our systems and processes to capitalise on all income opportunities.

o Putting a positive customer experience at the heart of our approach.

o Delivering income upwards of £2.5m per annum with year-on-year growth to £10.6m by 2028/29.

o Deliver Gift Aid targets across all shops.

o Assist the Retail Development Manager in launching new shops.

o Utilise digital and social media to drive footfall and stock donations.

o Support fundraising through the shops, including legacy and IG marketing.

o Tailor each shop in the portfolio to maximise the potential of its unique location and its role in the business – including exploration of clearance, vintage, furniture and books.

o Create a framework of retail standards of excellence and ensure shops are managed and maintained to those standards.

Sales and Profit

Monitor and be accountable for sales and category performance, as well as ensure that the team are aware of and engaged in the area financial performance
Foster a creative and entrepreneurial environment where team members seek to maximise income in new and innovative ways both within their shops and through a variety of channels, such as community events
Drive the team to maximise income from Gift Aid on donated products
Ensure that all financial procedures are adhered to and executed in a timely fashion by the shop teams

Shop Floor

Ensure sourcing sufficient levels of donated stock locally in collaboration with the shop management and Retail Partnerships team
Ensure compliance with efficient and commercially successful stock processing systems (such as pricing, quality standards, consumer safety, stock density and culling stock), including backroom systems and ensure these are adhered to by the volunteer team. Ensure that all legal and internal regulations regarding donated stock are adhered to
Inspire the team to provide a great customer and donor experience, which enables us to attract new supporters every day. Ensure that feedback, including complaints are escalated to the Director of Retail within the agreed timeframes
Empower the team to work in partnership with the Visual Merchandising Manager to create original, appropriate and commercially successful visual merchandising displays, including shop windows
Make sure that all procedures for the sale of new and donated corporate products are followed by the volunteer team
Work with the Director of Retail to ensure our shops are in good condition, maximise their potential and are fit for purpose
Provide a safe and healthy working environment and ensure that all team members are aware of and operate within our health and safety policies and procedures, including waste management and customer safety

Leadership – Volunteers

Support the Volunteer Manager and shop management teams to recruit, induct, and retain an inclusive and diverse volunteer team, which is large enough in numbers and capable to maximise income and profitability and guarantee the smooth running of the area.
Maintain an empowered, well trained, motivated and engaged volunteer team with excellent levels of communication at team and individual level.

· Define and develop our retail volunteer programme to ensure first rate volunteer experience, engagement, and great customer experience.

Connect the volunteer team with our work and help them to understand the value of their contribution.

Leadership - Paid Staff

· Support members of the charity retail team to embed a high performing, motivated, collaborative, creative and dynamic culture – and seek opportunities to celebrate success

· Provide line management, leadership and growth opportunities to the Shop Management team.

· Support new starters with comprehensive induction and training.

Ensure effective training, development and performance management of paid staff

· Support the annual appraisal and probation processes for all reports.

Work within our policies and procedures when dealing with problems at work

Management - Being part of Vision Foundation

Play active part in the charity, including attending and contributing to all-staff meetings
Play a key role in enabling the shop to represent the charity and increase the knowledge of the local community about our mission and work
Be accountable for the integration of each shop into the local community in collaboration with the shop teams
Empower the team to respond to all appeals and fundraising opportunities.
Adhere to and enforce our safeguarding policies

Other

Required to adhere to our vision, mission and values
Understanding of and commitment to adhere to equality, diversity, and staff health and wellbeing principles

Governance, finance and operations

· Understand and mitigate risk in the context of charity retail and multi-site working.

· Ensure timely and accurate performance reporting to Director of Retail.

· Support the Director of Retail in:

o Developing annual budgets, report variance and reforecast as appropriate.

o Developing and maintaining up to date policies and procedures and ensure these are embedded across the shops operation.

· Maintain up to date knowledge of charity law affecting retail and advice on emerging issues.

· Ensure all retail income is raised lawfully, including data protection legislation, Charity Commission guidance and Fundraising Standards/Charity Retail Association codes of practice.

· Ensure compliance with all relevant legislation including Trading standards, Health & Safety, fire and building regulations for the retail premises, ensuring annual inspections and training of all staff and volunteers.

Impact

· Explore opportunities to deliver the wider impact of the charity through the “shop front” of our retail portfolio, including employment, volunteer and training placements for blind and partially sighted people.

· Support eye health messaging through the shops.

· Support public awareness and understanding about visual impairment and visually impaired people.

· Share with customers the impact of the funds raised through shopping with us through in store communications, staff training and social media.

Personal attributes

· The ability to work under pressure whilst remaining calm and organised

· To be receptive to change and to act as a change agent

· The ability to maintain excellent rapport with staff, volunteers, supporters, and donors

· To consistently demonstrate a dedicated approach to the quality of customer service and team working.

• Comfortable working in a small team both strategically and operationally

• Commitment to teamwork, business partnering and a collegiate approach – with a ‘can do’ attitude and a sense of humour.

• Able to provide positive, dynamic, tenacious and flexible leadership at all times.

• Results-driven, able to measure and quantify own outcomes.

• Adaptable to changing landscape and evolving organisation.

• Willing and able to operate at pace in an organisation going through rapid change, using your initiative and delivering to tight deadlines

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

• Highly organised with ability to plan effectively and allocate resources appropriately.

• Committed to equal opportunities and inclusion

• An understanding of and commitment to blind and vision impaired people.

Person specification:

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential

· Experience in retail management delivering significant sales and profit growth across multiple sites, ideally in a charity retail context

· Experience of developing and managing budgets

· Experience of EPOS systems and Gift Aid

· Experience of setting and managing income and expenditure budgets

· Experience of leading and line managing others to develop and grow, building and maintaining a high performing team culture