Aje Athletica National Retail Manager

AJE ATHLETICA is a premium athleticwear brand created through the lens of the Aje fashion house. Designed to enrich physical performance and support through well-being, each AJE ATHLETICA collection encompasses 70% consciously sourced materials. AJE ATHLETICA recognises that the balance between humanity and planet Earth is the ultimate in wellness.

As the National Retail Manager, you will lead, optimise and deliver the A.A retail experience both nationally and internationally driving strong commercial results and a world-class retail and clienteling experience. You will be responsible for leading the Aje Athletica retail leadership team across the business, with a focus on creating a supportive and driven culture that results in a consistently outstanding brand experience at every customer touchpoint, and subsequently drives high-performance across sales, client experience, operations and people leadership, commercial results and growth each season.

This head of department leadership role allows you to own and improve processes, systems, relationships, and capabilities throughout all stages to ensure the business is able to achieve and exceed growth targets.

The AJE ATHLETICA National Retail Manager tasks will include:
**People & Leadership**
- Work collaboratively with the senior leadership team, both within your function and in cross-functional areas to ensure a consistent trade experience across the business.
- Be able to work at a peer level with fellow heads of department to influence their improvement and buy-in for retail results.
- Manage, lead and strategically influence all direct reports, including Retail Operations, Multisite and Store Managers, and retail and VM teams. Ensure team performance is to the highest standards through clear expectations, ongoing feedback, and appropriate training and development.
- Utilise personalised reward and recognition as well as performance management processes to improve team engagement and performance.
- Manage the success of the retail onboarding and immersion program and ensure retail training and development are available to ensure a best in class retail experience.
- Actively contribute to and develop the retail business' EVP and maintain consistent team retention and internal progression through the use of store-based training initiatives, development plans, and talent-mapping for internal successions.
- Manage the productivity of retail teams through the communication of clear expectations and oversee the process for regular progress conversations and annual appraisals. Drive retail recruitment initiatives with in-house HR and network connections
- Introduce resources to support day-to-day efficiencies as well as skill development of the team.
- Consistently deliver communications to all retail teams related to company information to
- Ensure a clear and unified understanding of business and retail objectives, campaigns and collections.
- Balance the leadership of the team with a focus on present objectives while staying strategic about the future.
- Lead by example in the demonstration of company values, and recognise and reward positive cultural behaviors across the company.
- Be an ambassador of the brand, and possess an innate understanding of, and vested interest in the contemporary fashion retail landscape.
- Develop and maintain a positive and professional working environment by demonstrating leadership through the highest levels of trust, integrity, fairness and professionalism.

**Commercial Excellence**
- Develop and execute the commercial strategy for the entire retail business, including sales forecasts, budgets, wages-to-sales, and staffing plans that prioritise growth and profitability.
- Monitor and maintain the commercial strategy, adapting to shifting market priorities, economic conditions and the general demands of the business.
- Develop and execute an innovative sales and clienteling strategy that ensures the achievement of each store's sales and profitability targets on a monthly, quarterly, annual and rolling basis.
- Effectively manage each store's headcount/wage budgets across the business. Manage budgeting strategy including daily splits and weekly phasing according to retail activity.
- Oversee the retail incentive structure across the business.
- Regularly review headcount, sales, merchandising, operational expenses and profitability reports to identify and respond to opportunities.
- Ensure the achievement of all retail KPIs and report on the results of the commercial profitability strategy, including retail KPIs such as ATV, IPT, store traffic, transactions & conversion rates, broken down daily, weekly, monthly & year

**Market and Client Development**
- Develop and execute an innovative clienteling strategy that ensures the achievement of each store's sales and profitability targets through the acquisition and cultivation of client relationships.
- Lead, model and coach in the execution of the clienteling strategy, l