Head of Retail and F&B

Abu Dhabi Airports; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 30,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading aviation organization seeks a strategic leader for overseeing Retail and F&B services at Abu Dhabi Airports. The role involves managing operations, optimizing revenues, and building relationships with concessionaires, requiring a strong background in Retail Management and significant leadership experience.

Qualifications

• 10 years of experience in Retail or F&B with minimum 5 years in a leadership role.
• Strong understanding of F&B operations and retail environments.
• Ability to manage large scale operations and multiple stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Oversee Retail and F&B services, managing operations and customer service.
• Develop strategic direction and optimize revenues.
• Lead budgeting and financial forecasting for concessions.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic Planning

Customer Service

Financial Analysis

Negotiation

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Retail Management or Business Administration

Certification in Retail Sales Management Marketing

Job description

About the Role:

The role is responsible for overseeing Retail and Food & Beverage (F&B) services at a strategic level. This includes leading new business development, managing operations (including customer service performance), budgeting, reporting, and supervising all retail unit leasing and F&B concessions. The aim is to ensure the achievement of annual revenue targets for retail and F&B concessions, initiating programs to attract new concessionaires, and maintaining and building strategic relationships with existing concessionaires while addressing urgent operational issues. Additionally, this position plays a critical role in defining and implementing forward-thinking strategic initiatives for profitable and sustainable business performance and revenue growth in non-aeronautical activities.

The key responsibilities associated with this role are as follows:

• Prepare and communicate sectional objectives and plan in line with division/department’s strategic objectives and operational plan and in line with Abu Dhabi Airports strategic performance management framework and scorecard.
• Develop strategic direction and direct the activities to identify trends in the passenger demographics, preferences, and identify opportunities to optimize revenues and enhance customer satisfaction.
• Manager and development of income projections, space planning and design, selection of operators, product promotions, rent structuring and facilitate concession pricing policy.
• Develop and lead ongoing forecasting, budgeting and managing of all concessions and concession related activities like annual budget, monthly forecasts, analyze passenger statistics, market and financial data on a monthly basis to provide business updates and achieve KPIS and monitor budget revenues and spend.
• Develop and manage the negotiation and management of retail concession agreements, including food and beverage and duty free and its amendments.
• Leading negotiations to fully understand general retail development and retail opportunities at Abu Dhabi Airports.
• Manage and maintain a pipeline of prospective partners, including assessment against the existing retail mix and financial benchmarking.
• Establish the policies and procedures for effective management of F&B concessions, including policies for the relationship between Abu Dhabi Airports and other agencies like Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority and how this impacts third party concession partners.
• Develop, integrate, lead, monitor and maintain the development of the Retail tenancy mix, casual leasing programme and F&B concessions within Abu Dhabi Airports.
• Lead negotiations for completion of new license / lease terms for all retailers within designate portfolio.
• Oversee/review the performance trends of retail, duty free and F&B concessionaires to meet for key categories in terms of space design and to ensure alignment to the commercial strategy, qualitative and quantitative targets measure performance against targets to improve performance and agreeing remedial action plan as necessary with under-performing retail partners.
• Develop revenue strategies and marketing plans for the retail-duty free and F&B businesses to maximize revenue and EBITDA.
• Manage all Retail & Duty Free + F&B concessions agreements and work closely with each concessionaire toward continuous improvement of services in terms of performance and client satisfaction within Abu Dhabi Airports.
• Attract new concessionaires as per individual and divisional key performance indicators that are set, in order to increase the visibility of the airport from a commercial standpoint.
• Manage the commercial marketing budget in relation to retail and F&B concessions.
• Oversee project management for retail and F&B opportunities with benchmark against comparable commercial spaces and leverage the existing one based on best practices. Identify emerging brands.
• Maintain financial analysis review Retail performance within portfolio.
• Identify and define the technology-related needs of the section in order to drive automation and cost optimization.
• Perform any other duties as requested by the reporting manager.

Required Education, Qualifications and Experience:

• Minimum Education Required Bachelor's Degree in Retail Management or Business Administration or a related field
• Certification in Retail Sales Management Marketing is an added advantage
• 10 years of experience in Retail or F&B with minimum 5 years in a leadership role in a similar Division.

At Abu Dhabi Airports, we are shaping the future of aviation in the region. Join a team where your expertise can make a real impact in ensuring world-class operational safety and efficiency. Apply today and join our team!