Head of Retail, Full Time – Wakefield

Overview

Salary Details: £85k -£100k depending on experience + Car

Location: Century House Brunel Road Wakefield 41 Industrial Estate

Job Reference: cardfac/TP/1411087/30774

cardfactory is the UK’s leading specialist retailer of greeting cards and gifts, with over 1,000 stores across the UK and Ireland. We’re on an exciting journey to deliver our vision of becoming a true omni-channel retailer.

Ready to lead one of the most exciting retail divisions in the UK? At cardfactory, we’re looking for an experienced Head of Retail to take charge of our Northern Territory—covering Northern and Republic of Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England. This is a big role with big impact: you’ll oversee 300–350 stores and guide a team of around 2,000 colleagues through a team of Regional Managers. Your mission? Deliver our strategic, commercial, and operational plans, keep customer experience at the heart of everything we do, and ensure results are achieved on plan and within budget—all while living our leadership behaviours and company values.

As Head of Retail, you’ll keep customers at the heart of every decision, work closely and collaboratively with the wider senior leadership team to strengthen communication between Retail and the Support Centre, lead a team of Regional Managers, and maintain up-to-date knowledge of competitors and external factors that influence sales and growth.

This opportunity is ideal for someone from a similar retail leadership background, particularly within value, high-volume environments such as convenience, grocery, or discount/value retailers. If you thrive in fast-paced settings and know how to drive performance at scale, we’d love to hear from you

 What we’re looking for:

• Proven experience as a senior leader in a large or multi-site omnichannel retailer (essential).
• Ability to influence and engage colleagues while working collaboratively across teams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong commercial acumen and analytical capability to drive performance.
• A customer-focused approach, ensuring exceptional service standards.
• An engaging and motivating leader who coaches and develops colleagues to reach their full potential.
• Strong IT skills, with the ability to leverage technology and data to improve processes and performance

Come and lead a retail network that’s at the heart of communities across the UK and Ireland—your impact starts here.

 

Card Factory is the UK’s leading specialist retailer of greetings cards, dressings, and gifts with over one thousand stores across the UK and Ireland.  In 2020 we launched our exciting 5-year business strategy including our vision of becoming a true Omni-channel retailer.  This strategy sees significant investment into our colleagues across the business creating multiple opportunities to join a fast-paced environment and be part of our exciting journey.  

In return, we offer a wide range of benefits to support your physical, mental, and financial wellbeing.

Benefits

• Pension
• 15% Card Factory colleague discount in-store and online
• Save As You Earn scheme
• Financial Wellbeing Support
  • Financial Education Tools
  • Salary Advance
• Seasonal incentive schemes
• Retail Management Apprenticeship Programmes with local providers with access to a virtual internal network for learning together
• Discounted gym membership, mobile phone contracts, and car leasing
• Discounts across 100’s of UK retailers
• Employee Assistance Programme – access to tools to support mental, physical, and financial wellbeing
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, and Adoption leave

This is an exciting role with genuine prospects for the right candidate. If this role describes you and your career aspirations, click apply now.

For any questions email: vacancies@cardfactory.co.uk (we do not accept CVs/Applications via email) 

We reserve the right to close this vacancy once sufficient suitable applications have been received. We advise applying early to avoid disappointment as applications will be reviewed regularly. 

No agencies, please.

IMPORTANT: Before applying for this role, please make sure you have the right to work in the country where the role is based. Unless it clearly stipulates within in the job advert above that the hiring company is looking to or able to sponsor applicants it is deemed that the hiring employer will only consider applications from those able to comply with and work in the country where the role is based.