Background
Fred Perry asked Maxwell Stephens to recruit a Facilities Manager responsible for the smooth running of its retail estate across the UK, Europe and the United States. The role provided end-to-end coordination of facilities and maintenance activity across the stores, holding high operational standards while keeping a firm grip on budgets.
In practice, the appointee would be the central point of contact for every store maintenance issue, making sure repairs were completed quickly, efficiently and with minimal disruption to trading.
The Brief
Key responsibilities included:
- Managing planned and reactive maintenance across the international retail portfolio.
- Sourcing, appointing and managing maintenance contractors and specialist suppliers.
- Keeping stores, building services and equipment fully operational.
- Monitoring contractor performance and service standards.
- Managing maintenance contracts and supplier relationships.
- Ensuring compliance with Health & Safety legislation and statutory requirements.
- Supporting new store openings, refurbishments and improvement projects.
- Conducting regular site visits across the retail estate.
- Managing purchase orders, invoices and facilities budgets.
- Maintaining accurate facilities records and asset databases.
- Producing financial reports and supporting budget forecasting.
The position combined operational facilities management with substantial commercial administration. It called for excellent organisation and close collaboration with internal stakeholders and external service providers alike.
The Challenge
Retail facilities roles differ from corporate ones in a way that matters for recruitment. A store cannot close its sales floor while it waits for a contractor, so the facilities function is judged on response time and on how little the customer notices. An international estate compounds the difficulty: contractors, statutory requirements and trading hours vary by country, and the person coordinating them is usually doing so remotely, from a single desk.
The brief therefore needed someone as comfortable with purchase orders, invoices and asset databases as with a failed air-conditioning unit on a busy trading day, and able to keep many small issues moving at once without losing accuracy on any of them. That combination of practical judgement and administrative precision is rarer than either skill on its own.
Our Approach
Maxwell Stephens looked for candidates with previous experience in facilities management, retail property or store maintenance, together with the ability to manage a fast-paced, geographically dispersed property portfolio. Given the international nature of the role, strong communication and organisational skills were essential, along with the confidence to build relationships with contractors, suppliers, store managers and senior stakeholders.
We focused the search on candidates who demonstrated:
- Experience coordinating multi-site retail facilities operations.
- Strong contractor and supplier management skills.
- Knowledge of Health & Safety legislation and compliance.
- Experience managing maintenance budgets, purchase orders and invoices.
- Excellent organisational and administrative abilities.
- Strong commercial awareness and financial accuracy.
- Advanced Microsoft Office skills and facilities database experience.
- A proactive, customer-focused approach with strong problem-solving ability.
- Flexibility to travel regularly across the retail estate.
Multi-site retail experience is easy to claim on a CV. What matters is how a candidate has actually handled a contractor failure, a compliance deadline or a store opening running to a fixed date, and those are the conversations a rigorous assessment has to have.
The Outcome
Following a targeted search and rigorous assessment process, Maxwell Stephens identified and appointed a candidate with the operational expertise, commercial awareness and stakeholder management skills to support Fred Perry's growing international retail portfolio. The appointment strengthened facilities delivery across the estate, keeping stores safe, compliant and operational while supporting the brand's continued expansion.
Why This Placement Worked
Roles like this are often recruited as either an administrator with a maintenance remit or a maintenance specialist with some paperwork attached. Fred Perry's brief gave equal weight to both halves, and so did the search.
If you need a facilities professional to coordinate a multi-site or international retail estate, Maxwell Stephens can help you define the role realistically and reach the candidates who cover all of it. Get in touch with our team.