Associate Director Retail Hair Sales - Drugstores, Distributors (UK&i)

WELLA COMPANY; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading beauty company is seeking an Associate Director Retail Hair Sales to drive sales growth across Drugstores and Distributors in the UK and Ireland. This role involves building profitable relationships, managing a sales team, and developing strategic business plans. The ideal candidate should have over 7 years of experience in sales management, strong negotiation skills, and the ability to thrive in a dynamic environment. The position is based in Wimbledon with a flexible work arrangement.

Benefits

25 days holiday plus birthday off

Optional Wella Pension Scheme

Staff discount on products

Gym Benefits

Enhanced family leave policies

Qualifications

• 7+ years of sales and customer management experience.
• Experience managing a sales team.
• Strong commercial awareness and budget planning skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement annual joint business plans with customers.
• Manage monthly and annual sales forecasts.
• Build strategic plans to grow specified categories.

Skills

Sales management

P&L management

Negotiation skills

Team leadership

Analytical skills

Education

Undergraduate degree

Tools

Excel

Job description

Position Title

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR RETAIL HAIR SALES - DRUGSTORES, DISTRIBUTORS (UK&I), NEW BUSINESS

Location

Wimbledon (2days)

Reports to

Senior Director Retail Hair

Direct Reports

2 (1 NAM, 1 NAE) + co‑ordination with PP Ecom Team

Scope

UK/ROI - Clairol (Nice'n Easy, Root Touch Up, Colour Strong), Wella (Silvikrin, Shockwaves, Wella Deluxe)

About the Wella Company

Together, WE enable individuals to look, feel, and be their true selves. Wella Company is one of the world’s leading beauty companies, comprised of a family of iconic brands such as Wella Professionals, Clairol, OPI, Nioxin and ghd. With 6,000 employees globally and a presence in over 100 countries, Wella Company and its brands enable consumers to look, feel, and be their true selves. As innovators in the hair and nail industry, Wella Company empowers its people to delight consumers, inspire beauty professionals, engage communities, and deliver sustainable growth to its stakeholders. For additional information about the Wella Company please visit www.wellacompany.com.

The Role

We are actively looking for an Associate Director, Drugstores (Boots, Superdrug), Distributors (UK&I) & New Business who can help us deliver through our portfolio of amazing brands by building profitable sales growth across our Wella Retail Hair business. We are looking for a true player‑manager – someone who can lead from the front and be heavily involved in all aspects of customers (and also act as cover for holidays/sickness) while managing a team of 3 (1 NAM, 1 NAE, 1 Retail Ops Exec). The total, Drugstores, Distributors (UK&I) & New Business channel value at Net Revenue is £19mn. The candidate will also coordinate e‑commerce pureplay channel results for RH (value £6mn) although line management and account responsibility for this sit in the e‑commerce team.

Candidate must be comfortable with an agile approach as challenges in the portfolio will vary from maximizing return with our strategic Drugstore customers Boots & Superdrug to maximizing performance of our distributors (pharmacy, smaller customers, Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland through our four distributor partners) as well as helping and supporting the e‑commerce team to maximize return from our fastest growing channel e‑commerce. They will also be very comfortable with new business development, as this role will also encompass chasing whitespace opportunities with the likes of Lidl, Aldi, Costco, Marks & Spencer to ensure our brands are reflected in the maximum distribution possible and represented in ways fitting with the brand.

Key Responsibilities

Business Planning

• Plan, develop, agree and implement an annual joint business plan with the customer where needed and add value to Wella.
• Plan, develop, agree and implement an annual joint business plan with our distributor partners.
• Ensure compliance with business plans and activate contingency plans when needed including short‑term gap filling.
• Design relevant promotional programmes for each brand in liaison with UK Marketing to deliver national marketing plan, sales objectives, customer and consumer needs in line with SRM guidance.
• Agree promotional forecast with Demand Planning to support the achievement of forecast accuracy objectives.
• Agree any promotional support packages with customers including second sites, trade marketing and online support.
• Review pre and post promotional activity analysis to maximise key learnings.

Financial Responsibilities

• Manage monthly, quarterly and annual sales forecasts. Provide weekly estimates on sales projections to the Retail Hair Director.
• Manage gross‑to‑net controls to optimise profitability. Manage a trade investment plan to maximise profitability.
• Work with customer and customer services to minimise receivables to achieve target debtor days for the customer.
• Authorise all invoices for payment within 7 days of receipt.
• Build contacts with the forecasting and supply chain teams within the customer to manage the most cost‑effective supply chain.
• Agree listings for all new products and brands as appropriate.
• Negotiate cost price changes with the customer as appropriate.

Strategic Planning

• Build strategic plans to build specified categories of business within the customer to deliver short‑ and long‑term company, customer and consumer objectives.
• Develop strategic projects with the customer to ensure future growth of the business.
• Liaise with the senior buying teams at the customer and be key point of escalation for any resolutions.

Relationships

• Build relationships with the specified customers at all levels of customer business.
• Be the voice of the customer within Wella Retail Hair.
• Escalate appropriately on important issues or ones that cannot be resolved.
• Attend and contribute to monthly reviews with marketing and demand planning.
• Plan, prepare and manage customer meetings with cross‑functional contacts: buying, supply, POS, store.

Key Responsibilities – Management of Team / Leadership

Customer Management

• Ensure team applies across their accounts all of the details listed above for their respective accounts.
• Ensure that trade terms for each account are justified and that all customers in the channel receive appropriate levels of support versus their benefit to Retail Hair.
• Be first point of escalation for all accounts in the portfolio, establishing strong relationships with senior buyers and category directors across the portfolio.
• Achieve agreed net revenue, GtN % investment and gross margin targets for the portfolio managed.
• Responsible for net revenue growth, share growth and delivery of joint business plans.
• Responsible for customer profitability and P&L, focused on maximising return on investment.
• Ensure value for money is achieved in all channels and recommend improvements to improve performance/efficiency.

Retail Hair Management Team

• Represent the outlined channels as key member of the Retail Hair Management Team (as one of 5 members of this). Be the voice of the customer.
• Help create Retail Hair vision and strategy and in particular commercial strategy alongside Retail Hair Director.
• Deputise where needed/appropriate for Retail Hair Director.
• Take on improvement projects to embed new ways of working or improve performance for total Retail Hair.
• Drive a positive 'can‑do' customer‑centric culture within the wider RH team and also the direct reporting channel.
• Actively own sales & ops process from a sales side alongside demand planning.
• Full ownership of the go‑to‑market strategy to drive commercial competitive advantage for Wella.

Team Management

• Responsible for management and coaching of NAM/NAE/Retail Ops Exec.
• Responsible for developing annual team and individual objectives.
• Responsible for long‑term development of team and building a succession plan into the AD role being undertaken.

Essential Skills, Experience & Qualifications

• 7 year+ sales and customer management background.
• Experience of managing a sales team.
• Strong commercial awareness with experience in P&L management, budget planning, forecast and customer management.
• Preferred experience in management of commercial trade term agreements, annual joint business plans or senior commercial negotiations.
• A proven strong negotiator with a results‑focused mentality.
• High level of knowledge of UK retail environment, preferred candidate to have multi‑channel experience.
• Minimum expectation is that the candidate is of senior national account manager level experience or above.
• Undergraduate degree level education.
• High awareness of what it takes to win in the retail and customer environment.
• Proficient Excel, numeracy and analytical skills with strong attention to detail.

What We Offer

• 25 days holiday + additional day off for your birthday (not including bank holidays).
• 3 days' personal leave for your own signification life events.
• 2 paid days off for volunteering/charity work.
• Optional Wella Pension Scheme (8% employer contribution, 3% employee contribution).
• Optional Family Private Medical Insurance Cover.
• Income Protection.
• Life Insurance (8x base salary up to 2 million payable in the event of your death in service of Wella).
• Staff Discount (80% of all hair products, 40% OPI, 1 x 50% ghd).
• EAP (Employee Assistance Program).
• Enhanced maternity, paternity, and adoption leave.
• Gym Benefits.
• Eye Tests.
• WOW Program (Bonus following exit from KKR, eligible after successful probation. For permanent employees only).
• Workplace/Nursery Benefits.
• 4 weeks working remotely abroad.
• Early Friday Finish during Summer.

EEO Opportunities

The Wella Company wants to meet the aims and commitments set out in its equality policy. This includes not discriminating under the Equality Act 2010 and building an accurate picture of the make‑up of the workforce in encouraging equality and diversity. We offer equal employment opportunity to qualified individuals without regard to race, religion or belief, colour, national origin, age, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Wella Company with federal and state disability laws and makes reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact us at: https://www.wellacompany.com/consumer-affairs. We strongly believe that cultivating a diverse workplace gives a company strength. The combination of unique skills, abilities, experiences and backgrounds creates an environment that produces extraordinary results. EOE Minorities/Females/Protected Veterans/Disabled. English – Please click on this link to review the Notification of Equal Opportunity Rights poster.