About Us:

WHSmith North America is North America’s premier award-winning travel retailer in the airport marketplace. For over 65 years, WHSNA has provided clients with a portfolio of attractive, successful brands! We currently operate more than 300 stores across the United States and Canada, and we are always looking for the best in talent.

Marshall Retail Group is part of the WHSmith Group of companies which has a strong track record of meeting high sustainability standards. This role is key to helping us grow our reputation in this area. Our parent group, WHSmith has recently launched a new Sustainability Strategy - Our Journey to a Better Business - across the three themes of Planet, People and Communities. We are looking for someone based in Las Vegas to work with our Sustainability Team in the UK and help develop and deliver this agenda in a format which is relevant for the US Market.

Job Summary:

The Divisional VP for Fresh & Local will be accountable for leading the merchandise function and managing the fresh food & local food and beverage categories. You will be a key member of the merchandising team, responsible for planning, strategy, and direction. You will have significant influence internally and externally and will be pivotal to delivering the business targets through bold decision making and expert leadership.

• Ongoing in-flight management working with your team to report and review analysis of sales and margin, identifying trading gaps and opportunities and developing tactical responses to course correct performance back to plan.
• Oversee vendor relationships, negotiations & agreements to deliver required commercial plan - including cost prices, promotional support, markdown funding and supplier investment.
• Delivery category strategy including all aspects of the plan – supplier plans, product assortment reviews etc.
• Delivering KPIs – sales, margin, and net margin
• Creating and agreeing the financial plan/budget for the year
• Delivering KPIs – sales, margin, and net margin
• Owner of the trading plans, working with your team to develop initiatives to drive sales and gross margins – initiatives would include managing new product launches, promotional plans, and new store openings.
• Using market data to benchmark performance versus market, understanding emerging trends and the opportunities and risks such trends bring to our model, developing plans to maximize opportunities and mitigate risks resulting from developments in our markets
• Identifying new and emerging categories to keep MRG ahead of our competitors

Minimum 8 years in buying merchandise preferred in grocery, convenience, or travel channels