General Manager – Travel Retail Jeddah

INSPIRE | EXHILARATE | DELIGHT

For over six decades, Chalhoub Group has been a partner and creator of luxury experiences in the Middle East. The Group, in its endeavour to excel as a hybrid retailer, has reinforced its distribution and marketing services with a portfolio of eight owned brands and over 300 international brands in the luxury, beauty, fashion, and art de vivre categories. More recently, the Group expanded its expertise into new categories of luxury watches, jewellery, and eyewear.

Every step at Chalhoub Group is taken with the customer at heart. Be it constantly reinventing itself or focusing on innovation to provide luxury experiences at over 750+ experiential retail stores, online and through mobile apps, each touch point leads to delighting the customer.

Today, Chalhoub Group stands for 14,000 skilled and talented professionals across seven countries, whose cohesive efforts have resulted in the Group being ranked third in the Middle East and first in Saudi Arabia as a Great Place to Work®.

To keep the innovation journey going, the Group has set up “The Greenhouse”, which is not just an innovation hub, but also an incubator space and accelerator for start-ups and small businesses in the region and internationally. This is just one of the several initiatives taken by the Group to reinvent itself, catalysed by forward thinking and future-proofing. The Group has also been embedding sustainability at the core of its business strategy with a clear commitment towards people, partners and the planet, and by being a member of the United Nations Global Compact Community and signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Principles.

What you’ll be doing  

As a General Manager (GM) -Travel Retail, you will be responsible for designing and implementing the strategy, goals and objectives of the Jeddah airport operations. Setting budgets and commercial targets of your respective operation in alignment with MD’s and VP’s strategic short and long term direction.

You will also be responsible for driving the development of your operation, predominately in its growth through new projects, whilst also reviewing and supporting the management of the current operational growth commercially and financially.

You will enable the business under your operation to achieve results through driving the capability of its human capital, promoting knowledge and information sharing and ensuring compliance. You will aim to: 

• Develop concepts and activities for the Travel retail business  
• Enhance productivity and performance of the managed activities through optimization, centralized negotiations and thereby improving the image and customer service of our brands and activities
• Agree on portfolio’s commercial KPIs for the year and cascade to respective teams accordingly; continuously monitoring progress and development towards strategic objectives
• Participate in strategic meetings with suppliers, marketing, merchandising and regional teams to negotiate commercial conditions (margin, animations, exclusivity…)
• Partner with Group leadership and support services teams, running projects that enhance efficiencies (i.e. any transformation or automation projects)
• Set the yearly fiscal and manpower budgets
• React with agility to initiatives
• Manage contracts and agreements with Brand(s)
• Review operational performances and planning accordingly
• Ensure all OPEX and CAPEX commitments remain within allotted budgets
• Oversee and monitor the preparations of financial statements.
• Deliver business KPIs as agreed with MD/VP (budget, P&L, People Metrics)
• Mentor and coach the team whilst leading them to achieve brands’ vision and business plans milestones
• Actively participate in Recruitment, succession planning and performance management for the team under your operation
• Represent the group externally, seeking alliances with government entities, ministries and authorities, etc…

What you’ll need to succeed  

• You would have a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, a Masters degree would be considered a great plus 
• You would have strong commercial acumen and be equally strong operationally 
• You will need to have previous experience in Travel Retail and would’ve handled a similar role extensively in the past 
• You would be fluent in both Arabic and English
• You would have a regional (GCC / MEA) experience and an exposure to the KSA market specifically. Being a current resident in Saudi/Jeddah would be a great plus
• You would be an excellent communicator who possesses a servant leadership attitude and a collaborative approach to succeed in this role

What we can offer you  

With us, you will turn your aspirations into reality.  We will help shape your journey through enriching experiences, learning and development opportunities and exposure to different assignments within your role or through internal mobility. Our Group offers diverse career paths for those who are extraordinary, every day.  

We recognize the value that you bring, and we strive to provide a competitive benefits package which includes health care, child education contribution, remote and flexible working policies as well as exclusive employee discounts.  

We Invite All Applicants to Apply

It Takes Diversity Of Thought, Culture, Background, Differing Abilities and Perspectives to truly Inspire, Exhilarate and Delight our customers. At Chalhoub Group, we are committed to inclusion and diversity.

We welcome all applicants to apply and be part of our exciting future. We ensure equal opportunity for all our applicants without regard to gender, age, race, religion, national origin or disability status.