Responsibleto:	CEO of Outdoors
Department:	Outdoors Retail
Hours:	40 Hours
Location:	Bury HQ with National Travel Required

Role Overview:

 

As the Retail Director of the Outdoor Division, you will provide strategic leadership and operational excellence across a portfolio of iconic outdoor brands including GO Outdoors, Blacks, Millets, and Fishing Republic. You will drive the commercial performance, customer experience, and retail innovation across a nationwide store estate, ensuring the brands evolve with changing customer behaviours while retaining their unique heritage.

You will develop and execute retail strategies that optimise store operations, boost efficiency, and strengthen customer loyalty. Your focus will be aligning store product assortments, pricing and placement with customer demand and company goals, across categories such as outdoor apparel, outdoor living and outdoor activities including cycling, climbing, horse riding, and fishing.

Collaborating with brands, product and marketing teams to maintaining a focus on customer experience are vital aspects of the role. As retail director your responsibilities extend to ensuring compliance with regulations and company policies.

 

KeyDuties/Responsibilities:

 

Strategic Leadership

• Define and execute a unified retail strategy that aligns with each brand’s identity while leveraging cross-brand synergies.
• Collaborate with brand leadership, buying, marketing, and e-commerce teams to deliver an omnichannel experience.

 

Operational Excellence

• Oversee retail operations across all stores to ensure high standards in execution, compliance, and customer satisfaction.
• Lead store format innovation, new store openings, refurbishments, and strategic closures.
• Embed a culture of continuous improvement and best practice sharing across the brands.

 

Commercial Performance

• Own and drive P&L accountability for the outdoor retail division.
• Set and manage KPIs for sales, margin, shrinkage, and operating costs.
• Identify opportunities for new revenue streams and customer growth.

Customer & Experience Focus

• Champion a consistent, engaging, and knowledgeable customer experience across all outdoor retail brands.
• Use insight and data to optimize store layouts, product presentation, and team training.
• Foster loyalty through in-store community engagement, local events, and loyalty initiatives.

 

Leadership & People Development

• Inspire and develop a high-performing field and in-store leadership team.
• Drive talent succession planning and performance culture across the retail network.
• Promote a culture that reflects the values of outdoor adventure, sustainability, and customer passion.

 

Skills/Experience/Knowledgeneeded:

 

• Extensive experience of working in a fast-paced retailing environment ideally in outdoor, lifestyle, or sports retail.
• Strong commercial acumen with a track record of delivering retail KPI’s and growth and profitability.
• Experience leading through complexity across multiple brands or divisions.
• Deep understanding of customer behaviour, store operations, and retail transformation.
• Strong commercial understanding of retail, trading and financial principles
• Skilled in finding commercial opportunities to achieve profit in any situation, with a trading mentality to support and develop product areas
• Strong interpersonal skills to build strong working relationships throughout the organisation and work effectively with all levels
• Proven leadership experience and ability to provide clear business goals for teams to support and develop skills base.
• Ability to problem solve and gather all key information and then use logic and creativity to propose solutions
• Ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Excel
• Detail-oriented with excellent organisational and multitasking abilities
• Current UK Driving license holder, with the willingness to travel across retail stores, head office and brand meetings, retail conferences.