Retail and Licensing Manager

Job Title: Retail and Licensing Manager Department: Commercial Dept Reporting To: Head of Retail and Licensing Hours: 35 hours, Mon – Fri – 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Location: St Andrews Contract: Full time – Permanent Salary: DOE - Competitive Job Purpose The R&A, which runs The Open and governs the sport of golf worldwide with the USGA, aims to recruit an experienced Retail and Licensing manager to add to the capability of the R&A’s Commercial & Marketing Department. The Retail and Licensing manager will be chiefly concerned with supporting the Head of Retail and Licensing in growing retail revenues and profit margins at The Open and Women’s Open across all retail and licensing channels. They will drive revenue growth by proactively managing our strategic retail partners and licensing agents in a commercial, innovative, and creative way, while bringing a consumer-focused approach to the business. They will help The R&A to build strong global brand relationships which will support us to build our owned and addressable audience, ensuring that our brands are accessible and appealing to those in and out of the golf world, all year round. The successful candidate will have strong fashion/sportswear/brand experience and previous experience of managing partners in conjunction with macro brand objectives and data led customer insight. The successful candidate will enhance the retail business by detailed analysis of previous sales behavior and market trends to deliver against the current strategy. They will also have exemplary organization and communication skills to be able to collaborate internally with key stakeholders and externally with our partners and suppliers. Job Description Role and Responsibilities Core responsibilities will be but not limited to: General: • Be responsible for delivering growth in revenue and net profit against The R&A’s retail and licensing business plans. Retail: • To support on the daily management of our strategic retail partner to include close management of all retail targets and costs for The Open and Women’s Open. • To work closely with our strategic retail partners for The Open to ensure that the daily management and customer service is to a high standard. • To support on the retail operational delivery of The Women’s Open, with Adidas as The WO’s first lead supplier relationship. • To support on advising what the future strategy and direction at The Women’s Open should be for retail. • To work with our finance team on close daily monitoring of costs to ensure that net profit is being maximised across all retail channels. • To work closely with the R&A Championship department and fulfilment partners on all retail and merchandise related event planning, staging, and operational elements at The Open Venue. • To work closely with The R&A Marketing team to deliver multi-channel retail campaigns and promotional activity to deliver sales and margin in both online and offline stores. Licensing: • To support on the daily management of our Strategic Licensing partner. • To work with our brand and marketing teams to ensure that Licensee rights and products are being optimally activated both on The R&As channels and other retail channels. Brand: • To work with our brand development team on developing our merchandise brand guidelines and licensing style guide to ensure we have enough creative assets for brand development moving forwards. E-Commerce: • To support our E-Commerce partner on a daily basis, to monitor and analyse sales and costs to ensure that our business plan is being optimally activated. • To support our E-Commerce partner on brand alignment and work with our DDI team to maximise web traffic and shop visibility from TheOpen.com. • To monitor, evaluate and report on the levels of customer service we provide on e- commerce and look for ways to improve standards. • To take decisions on performance and insights from our E-commerce platform to improve top and bottom line performance in collaboration with our E-Commerce provider. Key Stakeholder Relationships: • To manage any daily correspondence with Open Host Venues, both Secretary and Pro Shop Manager. • To manage Trademark monitoring. • To build and maintain an excellent direct relationship with all Official Suppliers and Official Licensees and measure their feedback on an annual basis. • To support on all associated legal agreements. • To liaise with R&A legal representatives regarding counterfeit goods and any action required. Qualifications and Experience • Strong retail and brand management experience. • Strong fashion/sportswear wear experience and previous experience of planning product ranges in line with brand objectives and customer insight. • Experience of customer service and management. • Experience of working towards KPIs. • Exceptional management and communication skills. • Experienced in managing external agencies and suppliers. • Budget management experience. • An understanding or experience of Golf and sports retail business is desirable but not essential. Personal qualities In addition, the successful candidate will require: • Self-motivated and proactive. Ready to work as part of a dynamic team. • Ability to work to tight deadlines and under pressure. • A willingness to learn and take on new ideas- growth mindset. • A Confident and articulate communicator capable of inspiring strong collaboration within the organisation. • Good organisational and planning skills. • A willingness to work outside normal working hours when necessary. • Flexibility to work from championship locations, throughout the UK and overseas, when required. • Flexibility to travel to partner locations, globally when required. To apply for this vacancy, please send your c.v. and covering letter, stating your salary expectations to Susie Crocker on recruitmentranda.org by the closing date of midday on Friday 27th March 2020. How your information will be used In order to progress your application, for administrative purposes, The R&A will record, keep, and hold the personal data which you have provided in this application stored in our Human Resources files. Your data will not be transferred to any third parties outside of The R&A group companies. If your application is successful, The R&A will hold this data as part of your employee record which will be stored on the basis of our Privacy Policy. In the event that your application is unsuccessful, we will hold the application form and the data contained for three months in case of a future vacancy which we may invite you to apply for, following which we will delete it. If you have any questions about The R&A’s use of your data, please contact us. This job description is written as an indication of the nature and scope of duties and responsibilities. It is not intended as a fully descriptive or definitive list and jobholders will be expected to carry out other duties assigned which are appropriate to the position. mailto:recruitmentranda.org