AREA MANAGER - ONLY STORES FINLAND

ONLY BRAND HOUSE; Espoo; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

ONLY STORES, part of BESTSELLER Retail Europe, is seeking a dynamic Area Manager to lead daily store operations in Helsinki and surrounding Finnish markets. You will mentor store managers, recruit top talent, and drive regional performance to achieve results across our fashion retail stores.

The role requires a strong leadership style, a results-driven mindset, and willingness to travel weekly. Permanent employment in Helsinki, Finland, with immediate joining date and responsibilities spanning

Qualifications

• +3 years’ experience in a similar area manager role with daily responsibility of multiple stores.
• Experience in establishing and opening new stores.
• Experience leading leaders and teams in a retail setting.
• Strong ability to identify commercial opportunities and optimize performance.

Responsibilities

• Lead daily operations of all stores in your area to meet planned results.
• Drive sales and manage performance weekly, monthly, and quarterly.
• Plan budgets, P/L, and area goals.
• Recruit and develop the store management team.
• Approve hours, scheduling and salary decisions.
• Provide sales training to shop managers and maintain brand standards.
• Oversee stock control, inventory management and visual presentation in stores.
• Monitor KPIs and follow up on performance.

Skills

Leadership

People development

Retail management

Recruitment

Analytics

Commercial awareness

Job description

Do you have experience with fashion retail? Do you have a proven track record in opening, running and developing stores, recruiting and developing people while leading your team in a motivating way? Can you contribute to creating an environment where people can grow and together create fantastic results in our ONLY STORES shops?

The role

You will be responsible for the daily leadership of all shop managers and follow up on performance of each store. Through close collaboration with each store manager, you will ensure that they have the best point of departure to manage the store and lead their team towards the best possible results. Your leadership style is motivating; you have a positive action-oriented approach, and you enjoy seeing your team develop themselves into bigger roles and more responsibility. A central part of the role is to recruit the best store managers who know how to lead, develop their team and achieve results.

Areas of responsibility

• Running existing stores to planned results
• Driving sales daily, weekly & monthly
• Planning goals and activities in your area, including budgets and P/L
• Recruitment and ongoing development of the team
• Optimization and approval of hours/scheduling including salaries
• Sales training of shop managers
• Optimization of the DNA / look and feel of each shop including visual presentation of styles
• Control of stock and inventory management
• Follow up performance and KPIs

Qualifications

• +3 years’ experience from a similar role as area manager with daily responsibility of minimum 5 shops
• Experience in establishing and opening new stores
• Experience in retail management in order to both optimize performance and develop the business
• Experience in leading leaders and teams
• Experience in recruiting and people development
• Analytically strong with ability to spot commercial opportunities
• Commercial
• Ability to lead from a distance and still ensure nearness to each shop
• Previous experience from the fashion business is an advantage

Your profile

You know the retail industry from inside out and you enjoy working in a structured way at a high speed with your team. It is important for us that you have an innovative, positive and clear leadership style where you contribute in a valuable way to how we run the market. You have strong retail experience, and your personality and leadership style makes you a strong role model to your team. You are extrovert, motivating and ambitious as a person and have a high level of energy, sense of detail and structure. You have a winning mentality and enjoy challenging yourself and your team to achieve targets and reach goals. The role involves weekly travel.

Deadline: 20th of September 2026.

Employment details: Permanent employment contract

Joining date: As soon as possible

Location: Helsinki, Finland

About Us.

ONLY STORES is a part of BESTSELLER Retail Europe, and we have existed for more than 25 years. We run close to 1000 stores in 18 markets with the following brands: ONLY and ONLY & SONS

We are based in Brande in Denmark, where more than 70 dedicated colleagues run ONLY STORES across the 18 markets. We grow our company based on values such as nearness to our colleagues and stores out in the markets, winning mentality and a belief that we can do even better tomorrow than today in order to build a strong successful business.

We enjoy a competitive environment where our own contribution and attitude give direct results on both top and bottom line. We work closely together and believe in freedom with responsibility and like people who act and make a difference. We are sure that this is the way we best can develop both our business and each other in a positive direction.