Retail Network Adviser — Format and Catchment Differentiation

Different locations may need different operating propositions

Review location performance alongside customer demand, access, surrounding competition, space constraints and service needs. Test whether existing segmentation explains meaningful differences or merely groups stores by size. Examine how assortment, opening hours, staffing and fulfilment roles interact within each format.

Develop alternatives the network can operate

Recommend a limited set of differentiated propositions where evidence supports them. Explain the implications for central planning, supply, training and performance management. Avoid proliferating formats that look attractive on paper but create unmanageable complexity for the organisation.

For proposed changes, identify the assumptions requiring a pilot and the evidence needed before wider adoption. Consider customer transition and the effect on nearby locations, rather than assuming benefits are entirely incremental. Where data is incomplete, make the limitation explicit and recommend proportionate further work.

Candidate capabilities

Applicants should have senior retail network, format or operations experience, with responsibility for translating customer insight into practical location decisions. They need financial literacy and the ability to connect store economics with operational feasibility. Experience across different formats is useful when it includes real implementation and learning.

Candidates should explain an occasion when apparent local variation did not justify a separate format, and one where differentiation improved performance. Clear writing and constructive engagement with central and field teams are essential.

The advisory result

Deliver a format assessment, operating implications and a prioritised test plan. The adviser has no authority to approve investment, change contracts or direct stores. Management retains implementation and approval responsibilities. Success is a more credible basis for deciding which locations should operate differently and why, with explicit costs and dependencies. The work should help the network improve relevance while preserving manageable complexity, rather than provide a large collection of bespoke concepts that cannot be supported consistently.