Area Visual Merchandiser (South West England)

We are looking for an Area Visual Merchandiser (AVM) to join Team OB’s VM team. This role will be working and supporting OB’s South West England stores.

As an Area Visual Merchandiser at OB, you will be responsible for creating, supporting, and advising the shops in your area and the business on all aspects of Visual Merchandising. This will involve implementing, driving and developing VM standards across all product groups.

With a cool head and a warm heart, you will identify and highlight commercial and new creative opportunities in the shops, coaching the teams on how to deliver excellent OB visual standards and maximise sales.

You’ll have a flair for design and a great understanding of VM in retail, understanding customer shopping habits and how to create a joyful customer experience across all of our store types and locations.

Reporting to the Senior Visual Merchandising Manager, you will work collaboratively with other SO teams such as Retail, Operations and Merchandising to elevate the shops visually and commercially by providing feedback and progress updates to the Field Manager. Supporting the rest of the VM team across the UK, you will share inspiring content, participate in the team’s wider projects and assist in stores when needed.

As well as regularly visiting existing stores in your area, you will also support new store setups alongside the team across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The ideal candidate will be based near Bristol or Bath and be within easy reach of the stores you will support, including Cardiff, Southampton and Exeter.

A bit about us …

At Oliver Bonas (OB), our values of Work Hard, Play Hard & Be Kind are integral to everything we do. Collaboration, imagination, curiosity, and teamwork are key to our success, and everyone has their part to play in making OB a special place to work.

Having fun is key, and a playful and positive approach creates an optimistic environment. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we are serious about what we do.

Our team knows their stuff. They’re confident and creative and unafraid to challenge convention to find solutions, taking accountability for their actions, but always with kindness and humility.

More about the role …

OB’s Area Visual Merchandisers will:

• Follow and implement the strategic plans of the VM team, maximising visual impact and identifying creative solutions to issues across each product type
• Create eye catching on trend displays that enhance the customer journey and impact sales positively
• Ensure all Visual directive packs are implemented to the correct standard within time frames, directing teams to learning materials, and feeding back to senior management on how this worked in shops
• Support the Windows team when needed, ensuring their displays are eye catching and well maintained
• Coach and guide shop teams through floorplans, fixtures and the most commercial adjacencies to be sure that shop floor space is used to its full capacity, is shoppable and visually excellent
• Manage day to day priorities and deadlines through effective diary management, ensuring your time is used effectively
• Support new store openings and refits, confidently handling all fixtures and product types
• Regularly build on your own understanding of company performance through commercial analysis of key resources from sales reports, merchandising information and our online learning platform
• Present a consistent brand image across your stores and empower your store teams to do the same using your skills and resources
• Maintain regular communication with Retail team, providing feedback on shops and teams visually highlighting opportunities and development areas
• Attend relevant Retail and Visual meetings to review progress and identify future objectives for yourself and the team
• Ensure shop handovers are sent in a timely manner, and are clear and constructive for the store management team to action and in line with the OB brand

Bonas Benefits:

• Generous employee discount up to 50% off all OB products
• Free access to our 24 hour employee assistance programme with Care First – offering financial, emotional and vocational support
• Flexible holiday – 30 days (including bank holidays) – increasing to 35 days with length of service
• Annual discretionary profit related bonus scheme
• Free membership for our Westfield Health Cash Plan
• Auto-enrolment into our pension plan
• Free access to our onsite gym
• Cycle to work scheme
• Refer a Friend incentive
• Quarterly free lunch
• Enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave
• Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity Voice network and EDI team
• Mental Health First Aider support
• Education and support throughout Looop eLearning platform

What we look for:

• Self-motivation
• An effective communicator, in line with our values
• Confidence delivering and receiving positive and challenging feedback
• Effective time planning
• Strong commercial skills
• Adaptability and problem solving abilities
• Passion and creative flair
• Ability to handle a wide range of product groups
• Attention to detail
• An awareness of current and emerging trends

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at OB

At Oliver Bonas, our promise is to do our bit to make living a joyful experience and give cause for optimism. This promise is central to our work in equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). To bring joy to others, we must first ensure everyone at OB feels valued, included and most importantly, can be themselves at work.

It is important to us that our brand reflects wider society and the communities in which we operate. As a result, we welcome all eligible applicants for this role however we are particularly interested in speaking to eligible candidates from the Black, Asian & Mixed Heritage communities.

Oliver Bonas is a Disability Confident Committed employer under the Disability Confident employer scheme.

To read more about our ED&I commitments, head over to the EDI page on our website: https://www.oliverbonas.com/meet-the-team/diversity