Head of Brand

Job description / Role

INSPIRE | EXHILARATE | DELIGHT

For over six decades, Chalhoub Group has been a partner and creator of luxury experiences in the Middle East. The Group, in its endeavour to excel as a hybrid retailer, has reinforced its distribution and marketing services with a portfolio of eight owned brands and over 300 international brands in the luxury, beauty, fashion, and art de vivre categories. More recently, the Group expanded its expertise into new categories of luxury watches, jewellery, and eyewear.

Every step at Chalhoub Group is taken with the customer at heart. Be it constantly reinventing itself or focusing on innovation to provide luxury experiences at over 750+ experiential retail stores, online and through mobile apps, each touch point leads to delighting the customer.

Today, Chalhoub Group stands for 14,000 skilled and talented professionals across seven countries, whose cohesive efforts have resulted in the Group being ranked third in the Middle East and first in Saudi Arabia as a Great Place to Work®.

To keep the innovation journey going, the Group has set up "The Greenhouse", which is not just an innovation hub, but also an incubator space and accelerator for start-ups and small businesses in the region and internationally. This is just one of the several initiatives taken by the Group to reinvent itself, catalysed by forward thinking and future-proofing. The Group has also been embedding sustainability at the core of its business strategy with a clear commitment towards people, partners and the planet, and by being a member of the United Nations Global Compact Community and signatory of the Women's Empowerment Principles.

What you'll be doing

Our Head of Brand is responsible for designing and implementing the strategy, goals and objectives, setting budgets and commercial targets of the brand in alignment with the Vice President for the short and long term. In addition, our Head of Brand is responsible for driving the development of the brand, predominately in its growth through new projects, whilst also reviewing and supporting the management of the current operational growth of retail, Visual merchandising, brand training and wholesale, commercially and financially. Our Head of Brand will enable our business to achieve results through strong collaboration with other stakeholders such as Buying, Marketing and People team and by driving the capability of its human capital and promoting knowledge and information sharing whilst ensuring compliance within the Group's guidelines. Your responsibilities will include:

- Develop the business plan of the brand in line with the strategic direction of the vertical and seek the buy-in of the Vice President.
- Agree on commercial KPIs for the year with Vice President and cascade to team accordingly; continuously monitor progress and development towards strategic objectives.
- Participate in strategic meetings with suppliers, marketing, merchandising and regional teams to negotiate commercial conditions (margin, animations, exclusivity...)
- Partner with Group leadership and run projects that enhance efficiencies around cost and time (i.e. any transformation or automation projects)
- Set the yearly fiscal and manpower budgets of the brand with plans and needs and leverage available dashboards to monitor budget materialization.
- Ensure People KPIs (i.e. nationalization, turnover rates) are agreed and cascaded to Retail Managers.
- React with agility to underperforming or successful initiatives.
- Develop an evolving hybrid customer journey allowing to build, grow and sustain a community of loyal Customers.
- Manage store network investments (opening, renovation and closing) and digital investments (e.g. eCommerce, apps, digital in store, etc...).
- Create a strong digital revenue channel for the brand.
- Manage contracts and agreements with Brand and request legal advisory where needed.
- Align operationally with Brand for implementation of contractual agreement.
- Ensure that IRR by store conforms to the Group's guidelines.
- Review bi-annual list of bad performing stores(retail-specific)/retailers (distribution-specific) to ensure remedial plan is implemented.
- Ensure all OPEX and CAPEX commitments remain within monthly budget allotments.
- Ensure that monthly and annual financial statements prepared by own financial team reflect the financial position of the Brand.
- Deliver business KPIs as agreed with VP (budget, P&L, People Metrics).
- Mentor and coach team and lead them to achieve brand vision and business plans milestones.
- Assign operational responsibility to team while keeping accountability of deliverables.
- Identify gaps in competences and manpower in team and find remedies with the help of the People Partner.
- Participate in Group's succession planning by identifying high potential within the team, especially potential captains.

Requirements

What you'll need to succeed

- Experience in identifying, pursuing and capturing new business opportunities.
- Experience in financial management, negotiating and agreeing to contracts . Able to nurture relationships with clients/ partners.
- Able to influence without authority and to be regarded as a credible trusted leader of a business.
- Self-aware, with the appropriate leadership skills to inspire high performing teams.
- Experience in developing and managing a cross-functional team with a variety of skills and experience.
- Experience of working in a fast-pace, matrixed environment.
- Exceptional communication, relationship-building, and project management skills.
- Master's Degree in Operations Management/ Business Administration or any related field.
- A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience with at least 5 years in a similar role

What we can offer you

With us, you will turn your aspirations into reality. We will help shape your journey through enriching experiences, learning and development opportunities and exposure to different assignments within your role or through internal mobility. Our Group offers diverse career paths for those who are extraordinary, every day.

We recognize the value that you bring, and we strive to provide a competitive benefits package which includes health care, child education contribution, remote and flexible working policies as well as exclusive employee discounts.

About the Company

The Chalhoub Group is the leading partner for luxury across the Middle East since 1955. As an expert in retail, distribution and marketing services based in Dubai, the group has become a major player in the fashion, beauty and gift sectors regionally.

By blending its Middle East expertise and intimate knowledge of luxury, Chalhoub Group is building brands in the region, by offering service excellence to all its partners and a unique experience to its customers through its passionate teams.

With a growing workforce of more than 9,000 people, implemented in 14 countries, as well as the operating of over 470 retail outlets, the group's success is attributed to its most valued asset of highly skilled and dedicated teams. Professionalism and passion are what fuel the Chalhoub Group's competitive edge in today's market.

By being committed to implementing sustainable practices into their business, the Chalhoub Group has been awarded in 2013 the CSR Label from the Dubai Chamber of Commerce.