Assistant Store Manager

Hotel Chocolat; Horsham; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 34,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Performance incentives

Staff discount 50%

Hotel stay discount 70%

Job summary

Hotel Chocolat is seeking an Assistant Store Manager in Horsham to lead in the Store Manager's absence, drive profitable sales and ensure a premium in-store experience.

You will support health & safety, HR processes, and coach a team to deliver outstanding customer service, while building strong customer relationships and achieving store KPIs.

Qualifications

• Hospitality/food & beverage experience or premium retailer background.
• Experience managing P&L and store KPIs is preferred.
• Excellent communication and people skills are essential.
• Able to train, coach and develop a team to deliver premium service.

Responsibilities

• Hold responsibility in the Store Manager's absence, driving sales and KPIs.
• Lead health & safety and HR processes and procedures.
• Coach and train the store team to deliver exceptional customer experiences.
• Build strong relationships with customers and stakeholders.

Skills

Customer experience

P&L understanding

Commercial awareness

Strong communication

Teamwork

Decision-making

Time management

Goal-oriented

IT literacy

Tools

Microsoft Excel

Word

Outlook

Job description

We’re looking for an Assistant Store Manager with natural people-focused skills - someone passionate, curious, customer obsessed, and of course a chocolate lover to support the Store Manager and team to drive profitable sales and an excellent customer experience instore. Ideally you will have experience in food and beverage, hospitality, or a premium retailer. Are you ready to join Hotel Chocolat’s exciting and ongoing journey as the UK’s favourite premium chocolate brand?

As the Assistant Store Manager, you will hold overall accountability and responsibility for managing your store in absence of the Store Manager: driving profitable sales and meeting KPIs and completing all operational tasks including Health and Safety and HR processes and procedures. You will regularly collaborate with your Store Manager, working together and supporting each other as one team, towards a shared goal and vision for Hotel Chocolat. You’ll consistently drive KPIs and performance in store, motivating your team to achieve targets and deliver our premium shopping experience to every customer, every day. Sharing your expert knowledge as a brand ambassador, you will train, support and coach your team along with the Store Manager to ensure your team is best in class. Lastly, People are the reason you are in retail - you thrive off building and maintaining excellent relationships with your customers and stakeholders with your infectious communication style.

What you bring to Hotel Chocolat:

• A current role or background working in a hospitality or café environment or premium high street retailer delivering an excellent customer experience.
• An understanding of P&L responsibility.
• Commercial Awareness to support decisions to benefit the store’s business.
• Strong communication skills with an ability to flex your communication style as needed.
• Teamwork: you can work autonomously and collaboratively with your team effortlessly.
• Effective decision-making and problem-solving skills.
• Reliable, with effective time keeping and organisational skills.
• Goal-oriented to drive your own performance, demonstrating a continuous improvement mindset.
• IT literate with a good understanding of Microsoft Excel, Word and Outlook.

In return for going the extra mile every day, we’ll offer you:

• A competitive salary.
• Incentives based on performance.
• 50% unlimited staff discount to treat yourself and your friends and family.
• 70% discount off a stay in our Hotel in St Lucia.
• A chance to develop yourself personally, working in an exciting, innovative and expanding company with real career progression.

About Us

We’re not just a chocolate company; we’re a family of chocolate lovers. From luxury gifts to our iconic Velvetiser™ and beyond, we’ve built a brand that’s all about crafting moments of indulgence. Our journey began as a humble mint company, but we soon found our passion for cacao and never looked back. Today, we’re proud to operate over 150 stores across the UK and continue to grow across categories, channels, and territories. Patience, passion, and purpose drive everything we do – just like the perfect cacao pod, our success doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the result of hard work, innovation, and the shared dedication of our customers, colleagues, farmers, and suppliers.

To learn more about who we are and our People Pledge to equality, diversity, and inclusion, visit: hotelchocolat.com/uk/engaged-ethics/our-people.html