Job Summary:

The Area Manager supports HobbyTown franchisees in delivering strong operational execution, consistent merchandising, and exceptional customer experience across all assigned stores. This role provides hands-on guidance, coaching, and field support to improve store performance, profit, and brand consistency.

The Area Manager also plays a key role in new store openings, supporting layout, merchandising, training, and launch execution to ensure new stores open strong and maintain brand standards from day one.

Reporting directly to the Regional Director, the Area Manager is a trusted partner to franchise owners and a key leader in field operations.

Key Responsibilities:

Franchise Support & Relationship Management

• Serve as the primary field partner for franchise owners within the region.
• Build trust through consistent communication, follow-up, and hands-on support.
• Understand each franchisee’s goals, challenges, and business needs.
• Connect franchisees to corporate departments (merchandising, marketing, finance, training, IT).

Operational Excellence & Brand Standards

• Conduct routine store visits to assess operational execution, store cleanliness, inventory integrity, and customer experience.
• Support implementation of HobbyTown brand standards, operational processes, and Spark/Beacon/Legacy model expectations.
• Help franchisees identify opportunities and implement improvement plans.
• Ensure stores follow best practices in loss prevention, safety, receiving, and inventory control.

Merchandising Leadership & Execution

• Support stores with merchandising execution, including planograms, category resets, product flow, and seasonal displays.
• Provide hands-on merchandising help when stores require support or realignment.
• Ensure brand consistency across signage, adjacencies, fixturing, and visual presentation.
• Communicate merchandising trends, opportunities, and product feedback to corporate teams.

New Store Opening Support

• Lead merchandising and operational setup for new HobbyTown franchise locations.
• Assist franchisees with store layout and flow, fixture placement, unpacking, staging, merchandising, and category build-outs.
• Train new staff on operations and customer service.
• Ensure stores are fully ready for grand opening with a focus on standards and readiness.
• Provide post-opening follow-up support.

Sales Growth, Margin Improvement & Financial Coaching

• Review KPIs with franchisees (sales, gross margin, payroll %, category mix, conversion, ATV, transaction count, inventory turns).
• Help owners create weekly and monthly sales-to-purchase plans aligned to target margin results.
• Identify opportunities to improve category mix, profitability, or labor planning.
• Support recovery plans for underperforming stores.

Training, Development & Best Practices

• Coach franchise owners and store leaders on operational execution, merchandising, service standards, and team development.
• Support onboarding and training of new franchisees and new store teams.
• Share system-wide best practices and encourage peer learning.
• Participate in regional meetings, training calls, and field workshops.

Customer Experience & Community Engagement

• Ensure stores execute the HobbyTown service model—knowledgeable, hands-on, friendly, and community-driven.
• Coach store teams to improve selling behaviors, engagement, and customer relationship building.
• Encourage stores to run demos, classes, events, and community partnerships that drive loyalty and traffic.

Communication & Initiative Rollout

• Serve as the communication link between franchisees and the Regional Director.
• Ensure all corporate initiatives—seasonal sets, resets, promotions, training programs, and operational updates—are clearly communicated and executed.
• Provide store visit reports with actionable follow-up.
• Identify opportunities, risks, and best-performing stores within the region.

Qualifications & Experience:

• 3–5 years of Store Manager experience in large-format retail (big-box, specialty, or high-volume environments preferred).
• Strong operational and merchandising background with proven results.
• Experience leading teams, training staff, and driving store execution.
• Demonstrated ability to coach and influence without direct authority.
• Strong communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to understand financial performance metrics and build action plans.
• Willingness to travel frequently within the assigned region.

Success Traits:

• Collaborative, supportive, and franchise-partner focused.
• Hands-on leader with strong operational instincts and merchandising ability.
• Highly accountable with excellent follow-through.
• Strong sense of urgency and ownership.
• Passion for retail, service, and helping franchise owners succeed.