Facilities Manager Appointments for Fred Perry

About Fred Perry

Fred Perry is one of Britain's best-known fashion brands, recognised globally for its sporting heritage, enduring design and Laurel Wreath logo. With headquarters in London and a network of international retail stores, showrooms and offices, the business operates across Europe, North America and Asia, and holds high standards across every part of its estate.

Our work with Fred Perry

Fred Perry has asked Maxwell Stephens to recruit Facilities Managers for two distinct briefs:

• Facilities Manager, retail estate: coordinating maintenance and contractors across stores in the UK, Europe and the United States
• Facilities Manager, Head Office and London showrooms: leading workplace and facilities operations across Head Office, the London showrooms and the wider property estate, reporting to the Finance Director

Facilities Manager: International Retail Estate

This role provided end-to-end coordination of facilities and maintenance across Fred Perry's stores in the UK, Europe and the US, acting as the central point of contact for every store maintenance issue so that repairs were completed quickly and with minimal disruption to trading. Responsibilities included planned and reactive maintenance, sourcing and managing contractors and specialist suppliers, monitoring contractor performance, maintenance contracts, health and safety and statutory compliance, support for new store openings and refurbishments, regular site visits, purchase orders, invoices and budgets, facilities records and asset databases, and financial reporting and forecasting.

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 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 usually does so remotely. The brief needed someone as comfortable with purchase orders and asset databases as with a failed air-conditioning unit on a busy trading day.

We looked for experience of multi-site retail facilities, store maintenance and contractor management, health and safety knowledge, budget and invoice control, strong organisation and administration, Microsoft Office and facilities database skills, and flexibility to travel across the estate. Multi-site retail experience is easy to claim on a CV, so the assessment focused on how candidates had actually handled contractor failures, compliance deadlines and store openings running to a fixed date.

Following a targeted search and rigorous assessment, Maxwell Stephens identified and appointed a candidate with the operational expertise, commercial awareness and stakeholder skills to support Fred Perry's growing international retail portfolio, keeping stores safe, compliant and operational as the brand expanded.

Facilities Manager: Head Office and London Showrooms

To support its continued growth and evolving property portfolio, Fred Perry also appointed Maxwell Stephens to recruit a Facilities Manager to lead workplace and facilities operations across its Head Office, London showrooms and wider property estate. Reporting to the Finance Director, the role covered facilities operations, office relocation and workplace improvement projects, planned and reactive maintenance, procuring and managing service contracts, supplier negotiation, health and safety and statutory compliance, energy procurement and sustainability, budgets, building management systems, and support for the wider international property portfolio.

A reporting line into the Finance Director tells you how a role will be judged: the Facilities Manager would be expected to justify spend, negotiate hard with suppliers and present property decisions in commercial terms. Commercial fluency was therefore assessed as seriously as technical knowledge.

Working with Fred Perry's leadership team, we searched for candidates from premium retail, corporate headquarters and multi-site portfolios, with health and safety expertise backed by IOSH or NEBOSH qualifications, relocation and workplace project delivery, contract negotiation, budget control, and building services and energy knowledge. International property experience in Europe or North America was particularly valuable.

Maxwell Stephens placed an experienced Facilities Manager who quickly took responsibility for Fred Perry's workplace operations, bringing corporate and retail facilities experience, proven health and safety leadership, successful relocation and refurbishment projects, strong contract negotiation and a collaborative style with stakeholders.

Why It Worked

Each brief had two halves that are usually recruited separately. The retail role is often filled as either an administrator with a maintenance remit or a maintenance specialist with some paperwork attached; Fred Perry gave both halves equal weight, and so did the search. The Head Office role needed brand standards and operational discipline in one person, and commercial fluency for a Finance Director reporting line. In both cases the assessment covered the whole role.

If you need a facilities professional for a multi-site retail estate or a mixed corporate and retail portfolio, Maxwell Stephens can help you define the role realistically and reach the candidates who cover all of it. Get in touch with our team.