Operations Manager at Pump & Abrasion Technologies

Purpose of the role

• Sixteen stores must run as one machine — the same standard, the same way, every day, in every store. The Operations Manager owns that machine. You own the day-to-day operations of the retail fleet: the operating system the stores run on, the people who run them, the numbers they produce, and the discipline that holds it all together when nobody is watching.
• This is not a head-office administrator role. You will spend real time on shop floors across the country, and you will be judged on what happens on those floors.

Key responsibilities

Retail operating system

• Own, maintain and improve the store operating manual, SOPs and standards (opening, closing, cash-up, handover, replenishment, receiving, returns and guarantees), and make sure every store runs them the same way.
• Run the operating cadence: daily store briefs and standards walks, weekly trade reviews, four-weekly store P&L reviews, quarterly stock takes and audits.
• Run a structured store-visit and audit programme through area management — floor, books and people — ending in dated actions with owners.

People leadership

• Lead area management and, through them, 16 store managers: set targets, coach performance, and deal with underperformance directly and fairly.
• Own rostering discipline — staffing matched to trade, within wage-to-turnover targets and BCEA requirements.
• Own the training ladder: onboarding, product and service training (including safety-boot fitment), and store-manager development, so every store can run to standard without supervision.

Commercial performance

• Own the fleet’s trading numbers: sales vs target, like-for-like growth, conversion, average transaction value, units per transaction and sales per labour hour — per store and across the fleet.
• Own each store’s four-walls P&L, with wage-to-turnover as the key controllable ratio.
• Diagnose underperforming stores properly — traffic, conversion or basket — and fix the actual constraint, not the symptom.

Stock and loss

• Own stock integrity: receiving discipline, replenishment (core sizes on hero lines never out), sell-through, markdowns and honest stock takes.
• Own shrinkage: identify sources, design controls, hold stores to them.
• Make sure the Hoodie-for-Life guarantee and all returns are executed cleanly in-store — the guarantee is a brand promise, and operations makes it true.

Systems and technology

• Run the fleet on our systems and make the systems work harder: Shopify POS (sales and loyalty), Acumatica (inventory and online-order allocation), EasyTeam (rostering), Microsoft Forms (daily checklists and defect capture), Notion (the Operations Blueprint — our source of truth) and Make.com automations (including automated mall turnover reporting).
• Use the data these systems produce — build and read scorecards, spot exceptions early, and drive decisions with numbers rather than anecdotes.
• Identify where process should be automated or simplified, and see those improvements through to adoption on the floor — not just built.

Growth and projects

• Run new-store openings end to end: site readiness, fit-out, stock build, hiring, launch and ramp to standard.
• Support the Kit Your Crew channel operationally: in-store order intake, embroidery handoff, turnaround commitments kept.

Compliance and risk

• Keep the fleet compliant: BCEA (hours, rosters, leave), Consumer Protection Act (returns and our guarantee), OHSA, POPIA, cash-handling and cash-in-transit safety, and lease obligations including mall turnover reporting.

What you will be measured on

Measure What it tells us

• Like-for-like sales growth Whether the existing fleet is actually growing
• Wage-to-turnover Labour cost discipline — the key controllable ratio

Measure What it tells us

• Conversion, ATV, UPT Whether the floors are selling, per store and fleet-wide
• Shrinkage % Stock control and process discipline
• Stock availability on hero
• lines Core sizes in stock — no silent lost sales
• Audit / standards scores The standard holding in every store, every visit
• New-store ramp Openings delivered on time and trading to plan

What we need from you

Experience

• 8+ years in multi-store retail operations, with at least 4 years managing managers across multiple locations (area, regional or national level). Apparel, footwear or workwear retail is a strong advantage.
• A track record of running stores to a documented standard — SOPs, audits, scorecards — and of turning underperforming stores around.
• Hands-on P&L accountability at store or region level: rostering to trade, wage-to-turnover, shrinkage and stock management.
• New-store opening experience is a strong advantage.
• Systems fluency (non-negotiable)
• Genuinely comfortable with retail systems — you must be able to work in a POS platform, an inventory/ERP system, a rostering tool and reporting dashboards without hand-holding. Experience with Shopify POS, Acumatica or similar ERPs, and workforce tools like EasyTeam counts in your favour.
• Strong with data: confident building and interpreting reports and spreadsheets, and comfortable working with automated workflows (e.g. Make.com or similar).
• You see technology as a way to run stores better — but you know a report never fixed a store. Behaviour first, tools second.

The person

• A genuine all-rounder — equally at home in a P&L review, a stockroom, a disciplinary process and a systems build. Sixteen stores means every kind of problem, most weeks.
• Direct and honest. You report real numbers, own failures without excuses, and hold others to the same standard.
• Disciplined about process. You believe standards are kept every day, not performed for visits.
• Respect for the customer — our customers are working people whose gear matters to their job and their safety. You take that seriously.
• Willing and able to travel nationally, regularly.

Formal requirements

• Matric essential; a relevant tertiary qualification (retail business management, operations, commerce) is an advantage.
• Valid driver’s licence and own reliable transport.
• Contactable references covering multi-store accountability.