Associate Director Retail Hair Sales - Drugstores, Distributors New Business

Location: Wimbledon (2days)

Reports to: Senior Director Retail Hair

Direct Reports: 2 (1 NAM, 1 NAE) + co-ordination with PP Ecom Team

Together,WEenable 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, 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

We are actively looking for an Associate Director, Drugstores (Boots, Superdrug), Distributors (UK&I) & New Business who can help us to 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) but then manage via a team of 3 (1 NAM, 1 NAE, 1 Retail Ops Exec). The Total, Drugstores, Distributors (UK&I) & New Businesschannel Value at Net Revenue is £19mn through these channels.

(The candidate will also co-ordinate Ecommerce pureplay channel results for RH (value £6mn) though line management and account responsibility for this will sit in Ecommerce 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 maximising performance of our Distributors (Pharmacy, Smaller Customers, Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland through our 4 distributor partners) as well as helping and supporting ecommerce team to maximise 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

• 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 on line support
• Review pre and post promotional activity analysis to maximise key learnings
• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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…