Divisional Merchandising and Marketing Executive

KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS

Strategy Execution, Risk Management, and Compliance

• Collaborate with executive management to ensure the vision, mission and business strategy is articulated at every level of the organisation and help in identifying risks and taking action to mitigate them.
• Help define, drive and implement organisational performance to ensure maximum capacity, efficiencies and reach or impact of the organisation’s mission.
• Drive a culture of professionalism, delivery, efficiency and urgency within area of oversight that supports the overall organisational strategic objectives.
• Roll out and ensure accountability for adherence to all operational procedures, policies and standards.

Operational Management      
Divisional marketing, advertising and promotions strategy execution and brand growth:

• Customise national strategies to develop, execute and maintain divisional marketing, advertising and promotional campaigns leading to greater brand awareness and influencing overall divisional revenue growth in alignment with SPAR Southern Africa’s business strategy
• Lead in all divisional branding and positioning initiatives, thus increasing SPAR’s Brand Equity and the increase of share of voice that will result in market share increase.
• Spearhead divisional product launch campaigns, successfully introducing new offerings that align with SPAR corporate strategies to capture significant market share across geographies, consumer segments, formats and channels.
• Divisional partnerships and brand expansion
• Lead engagements with and manage divisional-level brand partnerships, sponsorships and collaborations with the aim of strategically expanding market reach.
• Strategically expand brand presence into new markets, leveraging local marketing, promotional and advertising approaches to effectively deliver on marketing initiatives.

Products, consumer insights and data-driven decision-making:

• Strategically leverage big data analytics and customer segmentation to refine marketing, advertising and promotional strategies, improving overall targeting  and campaign efficiency in alignment with SPAR Southern Africa’s corporate business strategy.
• Conduct and monitor consumer research to identify emerging trends, shifting behaviours and new market opportunities as relates to SPAR’s marketing, advertising and promotional initiatives. Also applicable for ensuring supplies are available with no interruptions.

Vendor and stakeholder management and performance monitoring:

• Build and maintain relationships with marketing, advertising and promotional partners, suppliers, service providers and agencies.
• Act as a liaison between internal DC departments and external stakeholders and track key logistics metrics, such as customer metrics/feedback.
• Generate regular reports and provide insights to DC exco teams and address marketing and advertising trends.

Financial Management

• Drive sales growth for both the DC and Retail while protecting and improving gross profit margins, ensuring all marketing activity delivers measurable return on investment and aligns with agreed GP targets. 
• Manage divisional budgets, monitor expenses to ensure expenditure is within the budget and continuously strive to save costs while managing operational efficiency.
• Preparing and management of the Regional Guild budgets. 
• Identify, evaluate and communicate important market and industry trends that are likely to impact the organisation and specific area of oversight.
• Review financial and non-financial reports to identify risk, devise solutions or improvements.
• Manage working capital and stock management to align with business targets. 
• Drive the identification, optimisation, and collection of all other income streams (e.g. supplier rebates, promotional contributions, sponsorships and marketing income), ensuring full recovery, accurate reconciliation, and alignment to agreed commercial terms and budgets.
• Provide strategic oversight of competitive retail and wholesale price management by monitoring market and competitor pricing, supporting pricing decisions that balance competitiveness with gross profit protection, and ensuring alignment with SPAR’s value proposition and divisional financial targets.

People management, leadership and development

• Provide leadership support to the management team and all staff, defining objectives to be achieved by the team, providing guidance, mentorship and professional development opportunities.
• Manage the working environment of area of oversight and ensure it contributes to improving staff morale and increasing productivity.
• Foster a culture of excellence, teamwork and continuous improvement and ensure successes are celebrated and communicated to staff and stakeholders.

Customer Stakeholder Relationships

• Identify, build and nurture trust and collaborative relationships with key partners, internal and external stakeholders for purposes of ensuring sustainability of operational efficiencies.
• Adhere to all legal compliance and procedures as relates to customer and stakeholder relationships and provide oversight for area of control.
• Taking ownership of engagement, building an honest and transparent relationship with all customers and/or stakeholders.
• Manage accurate submission of all required reports to executive managements and stakeholders.      

SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE 

• Marketing, Finance, Business Administration or other relevant qualification.
• Minimum of 7 years of experience in Retail or Wholesale at Senior Management level.
• Proven experience in buying and selling at Senior Management level.
• Proven experience in providing guidance and expert advice to Senior Leaders.
• Ability to evaluate projects, budgets, and any other finance related area to determine suitability and effectiveness.
• Commercial management knowledge of how businesses and industries operate.  
• The ability to evaluate overall business performance to determine where improvements can be made and how the organisation can be more effective in reaching organisational goals.

• The ability to communicate effectively and present in front of an audience (member’s meetings, cell meeting, and PR / sponsorship events), and draft and execute divisional business plans.

The ideal applicant will satisfy the following requirements:

• Effectively cope with change, handle risk and uncertainty. 

• Flexible and adaptable when facing tough calls and is balanced despite conflicting demands of a situation. 

• Makes decisions authoritatively and wisely, after adequately contemplating various available courses of action.    

• Thoroughness in accomplishing a task through concern for all the areas involved, no matter how small. 
• Leadership competencies – decision making/problem solving, business acumen, strategic focus, building effective teams, and collaborative relationships. 

Interested parties should submit applications and copies of your qualification to Human Resources by no later than 25 September 2026.