At the heart of our business there are more than 900 dedicated employees working in Group functions. They work across all brands and are responsible for giving a range of centralised services to the business. We like to think of them as our ‘lynchpins’, making the success of Arcadia possible and our lives easier in the process.
Read on for a summary of some of the teams and what they do:
FINANCE
Working in Finance at Arcadia is not just about number crunching; it plays a vital role in the commercial management of our business. Spread throughout our offices in London and Leeds, the finance teams bring budgets, forecasts and trading reports together for Group consolidation as well as having responsibility for all accounting processes, including payroll and accounts payable, for the entire Group. There are also many varied and interesting projects which come with the territory when you have so many brands under one roof.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Supporting each of the brands is a Group HR team with specialists covering Resourcing, Reward, Learning and Development and Employee Relations. Securing the best talent and ensuring that we continuously develop and retain the skills to support the business for the future is our utmost priority. Our in-house Talent Team works specifically on maintaining healthy networks across Buying and Merchandising and introducing talented individuals into our business. Our Group HR team also promotes careers in retail across schools and universities and, as a Times Top 100 Employer and winner of the Target Jobs Graduate Retailer of the Year 2011, we think we’ve got something to shout about. All of this is supported by the Reward team who ensure that we remain competitive and unique with our blend of benefits and rewards.
INTERNATIONAL
We are constantly evolving and expanding overseas, and currently there are more than 500 stores across 30 markets throughout the world. Our International team manages the relationship with our franchise partners abroad, as well as coordinating product and visual merchandising to ensure that our international customers enjoy the same shopping experience as they would in the UK. We are proud and excited to be launching our brands in Canada, Australia and Kazakhstan in 2011 and Brazil in 2012. Just a part of our ambitious expansion plans across the globe.
IT & Ecommerce
Our talented IT team provides all the usual support and computer wizardry for the entire company, including technical support and the development and maintenance of software. They also work on some of the most exciting projects which help us as a business to grow for the future. Such projects include the replacement of our sale software solution and preparation for the opening of our new Las Vegas store in 2012. They’ve also been busy upgrading our e-commerce environment to ensure we can reach our customer in local languages and currencies across the world.
On that note our dedicated e-commerce team is responsible for developing our online retail business, which continues to be a key focus for us both in the UK and abroad. After successful site launches in the USA, France and Germany in 2011, the eCommerce team is committed to developing and launching further international sites around the world.
PR & EVENTS
We want all our brands to gain positive exposure in the press, and who better to ensure this than our in-house PR team. The team manages communication between Arcadia and a wide range of national and regional newspapers, magazines, websites and TV stations. They work across all Arcadia’s brands promoting key messages, new launches and collaborations, such as Kate Moss for Topshop and Beth Ditto for Evans. Meanwhile, the Arcadia events team is busy year-round coordinating all Group wide events such as seasonal Group Press Days and the Head Office Christmas party.
PROPERTY & STORE DEVELOPMENT
Our Property team is responsible for more than 2,500 stores in the UK, and handles various aspects of the property process including rent negotiation and the acquisition of new store sites. Our Store Development team is responsible for designing and implementing new store concepts for all brands in the UK and abroad. They also project manage store modernisations and implement the design and vision of new Arcadia stores. Most recently the Store Development team was responsible for designing our new Topshop and Topman store in Chicago and will oversee the all aspects of design and development of our next US store in Las Vegas in 2012.
SUPPLY CHAIN
Our logistics, supplier management and customer care teams ensure our global supply chains function effectively.
Logistics
This department is one of the key teams in the Group, ensuring our brands’ products are readily available to customers throughout the world. This is no mean feat; the team brings in more than 225 million units from approximately 55 countries around the world using a combination of sea, air and road.
Once these units are in the country, they are sent to one of four distribution centres in the UK where they are rapidly processed by 1,500 core staff and sent to the relevant store using our fleet of vehicles.
It doesn’t end there – the logistics team also ensures that some 28 million units reach our 600 international stores as widespread as Russia, Japan and Canada.
The team also coordinates the delivery of more than 17 million online orders to approximately 120 countries every year.
Supplier Management
This department oversees all our supplier processes and procedures, including setting supplier delivery standards and producing supplier handbooks. The team also provides sourcing analyses to the business, monitors infringement of the brands’ trade marks and manages our Fashion Footprint initiatives, including Ethical Trading.
Customer Care
The team is made up of 150 people working seven days a week to provide a customer care service on behalf of all our brands, covering store and internet sales. Each year they respond to customers worldwide, via over two million emails and phone calls, as well as answering messages sent via social media.
