Sara Svart

During my 12 years working in the fashion retail industry, I have led numerous teams and achieved significant growth in turnover, improved KPIs and healthier bottom lines in both retail- and partner stores. I believe that my knowledge in leadership, and my experience of changing the culture within companies would be assets in various industries. 

In my previous work position, I was responsible for creating the strategy for retail and had the main responsibility for the operational tasks as well as the operational- and economical results for retail stores, online stores and partner stores in Europe. Moreover, the position was linking between the company owners, retail, e-com, marketing, HR, partners, and the concern-owned agency. Some of my tasks were negotiating rental contracts and to develop IT-solutions with IT-partners. Furthermore, I was responsible for recruitments for retail and the agency, job-ads and salary budgets and was the leader of all retail staff and the administrative staff at the agency. 

During the last 5 years, I have developed standards, guidelines and training programs in areas such as customer service, product knowledge, visual merchandising and sales training for hundreds of retail employees, made plans for implementing these within the companies, and implemented the changes in strong cooperation with the local and regional managers. In my last position, I was responsible for the company’s employee app, which contributed to communication across the company on store level, country level and international level.

By leading with clear overall guidelines and goals and adapt communication and course of actions to each team, I have experienced that the company culture and the people are strengthen along with the economical results. I believe that the people are a company’s greatest assets and therefore, it is essential to have the right employees in all parts of the company, strong cooperation within each team, and that the management makes sure that the relevant information reaches the relevant people in a structured and clear way.

My work experience has given me a broad understanding of which tasks to prioritize and how to preserve a calm approach in busy situations and when handling conflicts. I am extremely result-driven, which I believe is crucial to succeed in many industries today. As a person, I appreciate long-distance running and have a high energy level, which makes me thrive having many tasks at the same time. These characteristics are present in my leadership style and way of working. To make sure that the company delivers great results in the areas of my responsibility, I set high standards and goals for myself and for the teams which I work with. Originally, I am from Stockholm, Sweden, and have lived in Denmark for 12 years. Combined with the fact that I have worked in various countries and travelled frequently, I have built a great understanding for communicating with people of different cultures and backgrounds, both on personal level and business level.

AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY: 

• Lead and control the operations of the concern’s retail business in stores and in partner stores
• Optimize retail costs (bottom line and top line) 
• Strategy
• Budgets 
• Business development
• Negotiate rental contracts, operational solutions and IT solutions
• Project management, internally and with partners 
• Operational tasks such as renovations, IT-solutions, flow of goods and campaigns
• Culture Management
• Lead the Store Managers, the Country Managers and co-workers at the Head Quarters
• HR: recruitments, make contracts, salary negotiations, job advertisements, set routines and processes
• Development of training programs for managers and employees
• Train managers in leadership, sales training, product knowledge etc. 
• Perform activities with the purpose of improving the customer experience
• Update and maintain the staff app
• Administrative- and managing tasks in Nordic Brand Agency (NBA)
• Main responsible for the Marketing and E-com department for the last 1,5 years in the position, partnering with i.e. PR-bureaus, retail-, consignment- and wholesale partners, IT-specialists and visual artists

AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY: 

• Operational optimization of the company’s retail stores and partner stores in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Belgium and Germany
• Frequent store visits in order to detect challenges and strengths
• Plan and execute the company’s operational strategy: create and follow through operational strategies and projects needed to improve the bottom line and the top line
• Make the overall retail strategy for 2020
• Negotiate and develop an app for employees
• Compose the content needed to implement the strategy, i.e.: Staff book, Visual Merchandising Guidelines and Sales Training Program
• Train Managers in leadership, sales training, visual merchandising and salary budgets
• Focus on the visual identity and inventory in the stores
• Administrate staffing in cooperation with the HR-manager
• Move goods between the physical stores and online in order to optimize sales.

AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY APART FROM THE ROLE AS STORE MANAGER, ILLUM:

• Responsible for the 5 Magasin partner stores
• Create a close partnership with the stores
• Motivate and train the employees through i.e. competitions, product information and sales training
• Create competitions and other sales promoting activities
• Collection presentations
• Visual Merchandising
• Stock take and stock controlling
• Responsible for renovations and other physical changes in the stores
• Responsible for the turnover, bottom line and KPIs
• Participate in buying and secure continuous feedback on the buying
• Member of the company’s Product Council.

AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY: 

• Store operations: to turn the store into a growing business
• HR-tasks such as recruiting, salary administration and handling holidays
• Leadership
• Main responsible for the KPIs, the top line and the bottom line
• Train the team in i.e. sales, product knowledge and visual merchandising
• Create and execute campaigns
• Stock take and stock controlling
• Replenishments
• Visual Merchandising.

AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY: 

• Assist customers and create long-lasting relationships
• Visual merchandising
• Training colleagues in product knowledge and visual merchandising
• Contact with partners, the brands, regarding i.e. buying, visual merchandising, inventory, turnover, KPIs, competitions, campaigns and stock take.

AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY: 

• Responsible for the daily operations
• Make sure that the budgets and the targets are met
• Responsible for the result on the bottom line
• Visual Merchandising
• Individual- and team based training and coaching
• Product training
• Recruiting and salary
• Responsible for stock optimization and stock take
• Buying.

PERIOD:                                                                                    2015 - 2016 

EDUCATION:                                                                            BA in English and Organizational Communication