Director of Retail and Operations - SEA

In 2016 JD Sports expanded into the Malaysia market and you can now find us across South East Asia. We combine the best of physical and digital retail to give a compelling consumer proposition with JD over 900 stores across 21 territories worldwide. Established in 1981 with a single store in the North West of England, JD Sports is a leading sports fashion multi-channel retailer of branded sports and casual wear. We are proud to offer customers the latest products from globally recognised brands such as Nike, adidas, Puma and The North Face, with strong private labels such as Pink Soda and Supply & Demand. We inspire our people to reach for higher levels of performance. To achieve these standards, we only recruit the best! All of our colleagues are highly skilled, self-motivated and constantly pursue perfection. The opportunity to progress arise quickly for those with the right qualities and ambition. We encourage our people to seek ways to improve our business by challenging how we merchandise, sell and manage the business, being creative and always thinking forward by suggesting alternative solutions. Colleagues from all levels of the organisation come together to solve problems and seize all opportunities. Our people are at the core of JD Sports and everything we do – could you be the next colleague to join the King of Trainers?

Overview: Responsible for the growth of the Southeast Asia region, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand (SEA) retail sales. Supporting the CEO preferably based in Malaysia working in strategic partnership across all centres of excellence functions (Finance, Supply Chain, Property, People, Transformation & Technology, Digital, Legal & CoSec).

Strategic Objectives: Demonstrate sales achievements in line with forecasted targets. Deliver best in class store operations, team development, brand presentation and customer experience.

Key Roles and Responsibilities:

• Manage the SEA region Retail Budget P&L with alignment to the overall JD Retail strategy. Ensure budgets and manageable costs are controlled and that net profits are met at store, area and regional level.
• Proactively contribute to the formulation of the APAC Retail Strategy including the facilitation of projects and trials within the SEA region.
• Ensure effective communication and be the key interface between SEA and COE support functions across Europe.
• Develop and drive a business plan to optimise market potential within SEA
• Market the JD brand in SEA, continuously improving brand equity and market share while identifying and delivering a differentiated customer offering based on a full understanding of the consumer and brand marketplace.
• Develop and execute the agreed property strategy for SEA, including the opening and closing of stores. Provide expert insight on key retail locations for new store openings/refits
• Analyse complex data and deliver clear conclusions and actions to a diverse audience of senior leaders, peers and subordinates
• Propose operational recommendations to drive/protect our business based on trends in local market and collate data from Senior SEA team on competitor activity within local market.
• Ensure compliance in all areas of operational activity to protect the business from legal exposure and financial risk e.g. Profit protection, H&S
• Work with the senior retail team in providing strategy, guidance & coaching to achieve within local markets
• Drive business performance through visual merchandising, KPI Management, sales growth and cost-effective operational execution
• Setting regional retail strategy for SEA including franchise counterpart
  
  

People and Talent Management:

• Build, develop and coach a high performing senior retail team, dedicated to quality, innovation, operational excellence and best practice across SEA
• Develop and lead a team with appropriate capabilities to execute against plan and ability to scale those capabilities with the business as it grows.
• Hire top talent and develop regional succession strategy to ensure leadership continuity
• Drive accountability with the Senior Regional Team on sales goals and budget management to achieve plan with regular reviews of the P&L and appropriately managing costs (payroll, store re-fits etc.)
  
  

Customer:

• Ensure retail excellence in operations standards, which reflect global JD guidelines to ensure efficiency of operations and a positive customer experience
• Present the Brand in line with global standards and differentiation of customer.
• Cascade and ensure rollout of early careers campaigns in SEA that drive diversity and inclusion and improve our employer value proposition to attract talent to the group.
  
  

Requirements, Skills & Experience:

• Demonstrate strong commercial acumen with strong strategic and analytical skills.
• Operate effectively within sports Fashion brands and retail with a proven history of driving
• Highly organised and results-focused who understand the JD DNA
• Ambitious, motivated and execution focused. Able to adapt and be pragmatic in a rapidly evolving environment
• A high calibre leader who can motivate and inspire their team, strong relationship builder who influences positively, with a high EQ, low ego and collaborative approach.
• Willing to be physically present to Southeast Asia with the option to fully relocate.
  
  

We know our employees work tirelessly to make JD Sports the success it is today and in turn, we offer them some amazing benefits:

• Transportation Allowance
• Staff's Discount Benefits
• Birthday Voucher
• Medical Insurance
• Optical/Dental/Health Screening Allowance
  
  

Due to the high volumes of applications our opportunities attract, it takes time to review them all. If you don't hear back within two weeks of you applying, please consider your application to have been unsuccessful on this occasion.

Applications that meet the skills criteria will be contacted for a 1st stage meeting with the talent team. Shortlisted candidates will then be invited to interview with the hiring manager.

Thank you again for your time.