Visual Merchandising Brand Champion - London & South West

Barbour; Holford; Hybrid; GBP 42,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus scheme

Staff Discount

Staff Shop

25 days holiday standard

Job summary

Barbour is seeking a VM Brand Champion to drive visual merchandising across London and the South West. Based in Central London with four days onsite and one day home working, you’ll rollout campaigns, standards and partner activations across retail, wholesale, and shops.

You’ll lead in-store teams, tailor guidelines, train staff, and report weekly on VM performance while collaborating with Global and UKI VM managers to maintain premium brand presentation.

Qualifications

• Experience in multi-store visual merchandising, preferably within a premium or heritage fashion brand.
• Proven ability to manage teams and projects.
• Strong understanding of customer journey, fixture layouts and in-store storytelling.
• Excellent organisation, time management, and communication skills.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment.
• Ability to travel frequently across the UK and Ireland.
• Highly creative but able to work within the brand vision.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, along with presentation skills to build strong relationships internally and externally.
• Self-motivated and able to demonstrate a flexible approach and attitude to workload and working hours.
• Comfortable with teamwork or working independently.

Responsibilities

• Based in the London office, but with regular daily travel across the region to ensure consistent, high-quality execution of visual merchandising standards across Barbour-owned stores, partner stores, wholesale accounts, concessions and shop-in-shops.
• Support UK Marketing team with setup of seasonal pop-ups, events and activations, ensuring a high standard of presentation ahead of launch and sell-in periods.
• Conduct regular store audits, develop clear and actionable improvement plans, and ensure timely follow-up to support effective implementation.
• Partner with Area Managers, VM Brand Champions and Partner Stores to deliver tailored seasonal product training and Model Store rollouts through engaging workshops, detailed guidelines and presentations.
• Adapt and localise global visual merchandising guidelines to meet the needs of your doors, ensuring alignment with seasonal launches and ad hoc product drops.
• Lead and coach in-store teams on brand standards, including mannequin styling, product presentation, store layouts, and window execution ensuring alignment with campaigns, product storytelling and seasonal objectives.
• Collaborate closely with Store Managers to support and develop in-store Brand Specialists, driving adherence to VM standards while contributing to sales performance and brand objectives.
• Produce and distribute weekly VM reports, summarising store visits, virtual checks and key insights to the VM Manager, Retail team and wider VM function.
• Support Global and UKI VM Managers in the seasonal setup of brand showrooms in South Shields and London, ensuring a high standard of presentation ahead of sell-in periods.
• Conduct competitor analysis and complete shop reports to identify emerging trends, opportunities and areas for commercial growth.
• Manage travel schedules and regional planning efficiently to ensure optimal coverage and alignment with business priorities.

Skills

Visual Merchandising

Team Management

Brand Standards

Communication Skills

Travel frequently

Storytelling

Adobe Creative Cloud

Tools

Adobe Creative Cloud

Excel

Job description

The Barbour story began in 1894 in South Shields in the North East of England. Founder John Barbour began supplying oilskins and other garments to protect the growing community of sailors, fishermen and dockers. Still family owned and now fifth generation, Barbour HQ remains in South Shields. Under the leadership of Chairman Dame Margaret Barbour, Barbour has grown into a lifestyle brand sold in over 55 countries worldwide including Europe, the US and Asia offering a wardrobe of stylish functional clothing, footwear and accessories inspired by the unique values of the British countryside. The iconic Barbour Bedale and Barbour Beaufort wax jackets continue to be made by hand in the factory in South Shields. In 2020, Barbour launched Wax for Life, an overarching name for all of Barbour's wax services designed to encourage customers to extend the life of their wax garments. Wax for Life includes re-waxing and repairs (first introduced in 1921) and Barbour Re-Loved an upcycling circularity initiative. Each year over 70,000 wax garments are sent back to Barbour globally to be repaired, rewaxed or altered.

Position Overview:

We are currently recruiting for a VM Brand Champion - London & South West to join our UK Marketing team. The successful candidate will work as part of the UK Visual Merchandising team to deliver high-quality execution and continuous development of Barbour's visual merchandising strategy across retail, wholesale and partner stores in London and the South West. This includes the rollout of window campaigns, seasonal pop-ups, brand events & partner activations, in-store merchandising standards, team training, and ongoing support of UK-wide VM guidelines to ensure best-in-class presentation.

The role is responsible for maintaining a consistent, elevated and brand-aligned visual identity across all stores and partners, reflecting Barbour's heritage and premium positioning. By combining strong visual execution with commercial awareness, the position plays a key role in driving performance while enhancing the overall customer experience.

Collaborating closely with UK Marketing, Retail, Partner Stores and Global VM teams, you will deliver locally relevant and commercially effective solutions. This cross-functional partnership ensures all visual activity aligns with Global brand direction while resonating with the UK and Ireland market.

The successful candidate will be based in, or within a reasonable commuting distance of, Central London and will be expected to pay for travel to Barbour and partner locations within Zone 1. Travel outside Zone 1 will be covered by Barbour.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Based in the London office, but with regular daily travel across the region to ensure consistent, high-quality execution of visual merchandising standards across Barbour-owned stores, partner stores, wholesale accounts, concessions and shop-in-shops.
• Support UK Marketing team with setup of seasonal pop-ups, events and activations, ensuring a high standard of presentation ahead of launch and sell-in periods.
• Conduct regular store audits, develop clear and actionable improvement plans, and ensure timely follow-up to support effective implementation.
• Partner with Area Managers, VM Brand Champions and Partner Stores to deliver tailored seasonal product training and Model Store rollouts through engaging workshops, detailed guidelines and presentations.
• Adapt and localise global visual merchandising guidelines to meet the needs of your doors, ensuring alignment with seasonal launches and ad hoc product drops.
• Lead and coach in-store teams on brand standards, including mannequin styling, product presentation, store layouts, and window execution ensuring alignment with campaigns, product storytelling and seasonal objectives.
• Collaborate closely with Store Managers to support and develop in-store Brand Specialists, driving adherence to VM standards while contributing to sales performance and brand objectives.
• Produce and distribute weekly VM reports, summarising store visits, virtual checks and key insights to the VM Manager, Retail team and wider VM function.
• Support Global and UKI VM Managers in the seasonal setup of brand showrooms in South Shields and London, ensuring a high standard of presentation ahead of sell-in periods.
• Conduct competitor analysis and complete shop reports to identify emerging trends, opportunities and areas for commercial growth.
• Manage travel schedules and regional planning efficiently to ensure optimal coverage and alignment with business priorities.

Skills and Experience:

• Experience in multi store visual merchandising, preferably within a premium or heritage fashion brand.
• Proven ability to manage teams and projects.
• Strong understanding of customer journey, fixture layouts and in-store storytelling.
• Excellent organisation, time management, and communication skills.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment.
• Ability to travel frequently across the UK and Ireland.
• Highly creative but able to work within the brand vision.
• Interested and knowledgeable in fashion and shows an affinity towards premium heritage brands.
• Demonstrates high standards of organisation, planning and attention to detail.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, along with presentation skills to build strong relationships internally and externally.
• Self-motivated and able to demonstrate a flexible approach and attitude to workload and working hours.
• Comfortable with teamwork or working independently.
• Be willing to travel, including overnight stays and occasional night shifts.
• Possess essential IT skills including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe Creative Cloud.

Additional Information:

• This role is based in Central London, with an expectation of four days per week working onsite. This will include time spent visiting our Central London retail stores, wholesale and partner locations, as well as working from our Holford Showroom. One day per week will be available for home working.
• The role will also involve occasional travel further afield across the South West to visit additional locations and partners.
• Discretionary Company bonus scheme
• Staff Discount
• Staff Shop
• 25 days holiday as standard increasing with length of service plus bank holidays
• Access to training and development activities to support your career development
• Operate hybrid & flexible working
• 4pm finish on a Friday
• Refer a friend bonus scheme
• Reward & Recognition Program
• Length of service rewards