Job Title

Area Manager – Retail Operations, Tamil Nadu @ ChennaiJob purpose- To be responsible for sales and profit growth of Linen Club retail channel the assigned region - To recruit franchisees with investment potential above half a crose in the assigned region for Linen Club exclusive stores. - To book & service sale orders from each franchisee regularly and ensure outstanding are kept under specified norms - To ensure existing stores exhibit monthly/quarterly sales growth over previous year: both in primary billing and in secondary sales from the stores - To ensure franchisees adhere to POS software use, SOP guidelines and VM guidelines including basic store hygiene and well groomed staff. - To improve retail experience at each Linen Club franchised store - To ensure capturing of rich customer information for purpose of customer communication & campaign design - To aid and implement regionally the retail Marketing/Brand building initiatives put forth by head office: billboards, local events, promo campaigns, co-branding exercises etc - To provide customer feedback, product feedback, service ideas, tailored garments feedback, competition performance back to the head office to bring about improvementsJob Context:There are two important transitions that Linen Club wants to undertake in coming years. (a) Lessening the dependence on agents to find new franchisees as it is an expensive way to spread store network and (b) focussing attention on secondary sales besides primary billing & owning customers being serviced from the exclusive brand stores.In this context, regional presence of retail managers who can find new franchisees and also look into improving pure play retailing aspects is important.Major Challenges:- Maharashtra is the region where strong trade sales have not translated into growth of exclusive Linen Club stores and this situation needs correction. The perception of Linen fabric being only a Summer fabric has to be addressed and a strong business case needs to be put forth to the franchisees. - Use of POS software provided by Jayashree is not regular or real time by franchisees and there are serious errors of omissions. This needs to be addressed. - Same is the case with VM principles and SOP guidelines which needs to be corrected. - Malpractices such as selling fabrics other than Linen Club need to be curbed by constant scrutiny. - Info on what works well in one part of the region is not disseminated today to other stores that can improve sales.AccountabilitySame store sales growth (Growth in every store over same period previous year); in primary billing and secondary sales both:- Booking and servicing of sales orders from the franchisees and ensuring maximum fulfillmentRetail store expansion by adding full investment franchisees:- to understand market well to estimate sales accurately - to choose locations that help build the brand - ensure profitability for franchisee & sustainable business for JSTRetail experience at every Linen Club store:- Monitor showrooms for cleanliness, neatness, VM principles followed, window display, lighting, air coolness, staff well groomed, fragrance, music, tailoring service quality and responsiveness - Degree of standardization across all stores by ensuring SOP adherence at each shopEnsure Compliances- Ensure POS software usage by franchisees - Ensure Capillary loyalty installation by franchisees - Ensure customer data capture- regularity, adequacy and accuracy in CapillaryBuilding market intelligence/insights- Gather info on competition, sales benchmarks - Identify right locations for outdoor media or BTL marketing activities - Identify vendors for flex printing