Manager Contact Lenses Sales Channels

With formulas such as Eye Wish, Pearle, lenstore.co.uk and Vision Express, GrandVision is a global leader in optical (r)etail. If you think maturity always comes at the cost of speed and growth potential, think again. GrandVision’s secret to success? A top-notch global support center combined with a highly efficient way to roll out optimizations and innovations across different brands. Contact lenses have been identified as one of the major areas of potential growth. They are building a global department to capitalize on this opportunity.

Care about eye care

GrandVision is an umbrella company uniting 34 retailers who are all market leaders in the categories sunglasses, prescription glasses, contact lenses and accessories. They have strong e-commerce platforms and over 6,400 stores in 44 countries across Europe, the Americas and Asia. The company is listed at the Amsterdam stock exchange and is backed by HAL Investments. They’re a global market leader in optical retail already, but their aspirations reach higher. They want to provide high quality and affordable eye care to more and more people around the world and, by doing so, help them realize their full potential in life. That’s what they mean when they say “In eye care, we care more.” GrandVision is a name well chosen. An essential element of Grandvision’s success formula is talent management. They recruit for careers, never for just a job. The business is built by people who have gone on to achieve a successful career through experiencing a variety of different roles in different locations and areas of the business. Take Bas Reintjes. He joined GrandVision as a Business Development Manager and was soon offered the opportunity to dive into the supply chain side of the business in Brazil. In October 2016, he returned to Amsterdam in a new role: Director Center of Excellence Contact Lens & Accessories.

“Glasses are huge for us. It’s about time we start focussing on the untapped potential of contact lenses and accessories. That’s why we decided to build a Center of Excellence Contact Lens & Accessories and hire a Manager Contact Lenses Sales Channels with global responsibility.” – Bas Reintjes

The objective of the Center of Excellence is to provide the operating companies with the necessary expertise on contact lenses to generate a competitive advantage. The department consists of 5 FTE, all newly recruited into their positions, delivering excellence in end-to-end category management. With a high energy and ambition level, they will turn contact lenses into a great offer for consumers and an additional revenue stream for GrandVision.

The Role: Manager Contact Lenses Sales Channels

People wearing contact lenses can choose between a variety of contact lenses. Whichever choice they make, it’s never going to be a one-off purchase. A subscription model can ease the lives of consumers and store staff, which will lead to more satisfied and loyal customers. The Manager Contact Lenses Sales Channels will implement and commercialize an omnichannel subscription model for contact lenses and tirelessly increase the user subscription base.

The Manager will work closely with Reintjes to define the commercialization for the subscription offering. In some markets, subscription can be considered virgin territory. In other markets, there may be a contact lens subscription model in place. The objective is to create one global model that can be co-managed at group level with the markets. This will be done in close collaboration with other group functions such as IT and supply chain. The next step is to implement and commercialize the subscription model, so that consumers can receive their lenses of choice, expert advice and membership deals where and when they need them. This includes rapidly growing the subscription user base across all GrandVision markets, developing CRM programmes to optimize the customer journey, managing the commercialization in each market, enabling store staff to easily sell the subscription and sharing best practices. This means the Manager will have to liaise with and maintain excellent relationships with local management teams, and also understand and translate regional market needs. Next career steps After the start-up phase of the subscription model, the Manager Contact Lenses Sales Channels will keep an eye open for new sales channels, both online & offline, to commercialize contact lenses outside GrandVision’s own optical stores. This phase will involve preparing business plans and implementing approved plans. A potential next step outside the Center of Excellence would be a sales management role in an operating company.

Personality

• Analytical and results-driven
• Flexible and eager to learn
• Self-motivated and optimistic by nature
• Strong ability to align stakeholders
• Willing to travel within Europe a few days a month

Experience

• Academic qualification
• P&L responsibility
• Minimum 7 years’ experience in commercial retail or e-commerce
• Entrepreneurial background is an advantage
• Proven track record of launching a new channel or category
• Change management in a matrix organization
• Digital media, subscription, ERP, UX, SEO, SEA etc.