Absolute Collagen
Head of Retail
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Company Overview
Absolute Collagen is the UK’s best-selling liquid collagen supplement and a fast-growing wellness brand operating at the intersection of beauty, health, and nutrition.
Founded in 2017 by Maxine and Darcy Laceby, the business has built a highly engaged customer community of over 60,000 subscribers within a subscription-first, omnichannel model. The brand has grown through strong customer advocacy, high retention, and a loyal subscriber base.
Backed by private equity investor Livingbridge, Absolute Collagen is now focused on its next phase of growth. Alongside our established DTC business, retail is becoming an increasingly important part of our strategy, helping more customers discover, understand, and access the brand.
With an existing major high street retail partnership with Boots and significant opportunity ahead, we are looking for an ambitious Head of Retail to lead the next stage of growth. As a brand in a highly informed and increasingly scrutinised category, science, efficacy, and customer trust are central to how Absolute Collagen shows up across every channel.
Why This Role Exists
Retail is becoming a major growth engine for Absolute Collagen, and we need a commercially sharp, high-energy retail leader to help unlock its full potential.
This role has been created to lead and accelerate our retail strategy, strengthen our existing retail partnership, and open the right new doors across beauty, wellness, supplements, pharmacy, grocery, and premium specialist channels.
The Head of Retail will be responsible for building a retail channel that complements and supports our DTC business, rather than simply competing with it. This means thinking carefully about pricing, positioning, product mix, retail execution, and customer discovery.
This is a role for someone with drive, pace, and ideas, someone who can build strong retailer relationships, spot commercial opportunities, and make things happen.
Role Impact
Build retail into a major growth engine
This role will lead the next stage of retail growth for Absolute Collagen, turning retail from an emerging channel into a meaningful contributor to revenue, brand awareness, and customer acquisition.
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Strengthen existing retail performance
The Head of Retail will own and develop our existing major high street retail partnership, ensuring the account is commercially strong, well managed, and delivering against its full potential.
Open the right new doors
They will identify and unlock new retail opportunities across supplements, wellness, beauty, pharmacy, grocery, premium specialist channels, and selected international markets.
Make retail and DTC work together
A key part of the role is ensuring retail supports, rather than undermines, our DTC business. This means making smart decisions around pricing, product mix, positioning, promotions, and customer journey.
Bring the brand to life in retail
This person will ensure our products do not just land in retail; they work in retail. They will help shape the right activations, campaigns, science education, and retailer partnerships to drive discovery, trial, and repeat purchase.
What Success Looks Like (12 Months)
- A strong, commercially productive relationship with our existing key retail partner.
- A clear retail growth strategy that supports both revenue and brand positioning.
- New retail opportunities identified and progressed across the right channels.
- A good understanding of science-led, efficacy-focused products.
- Retail and DTC working together effectively, with clear thinking around pricing, subscription, customer behaviour, and channel roles.
- Better retail execution, including stronger launches, activations, campaigns, stock planning, and trading performance.
Key Responsibilities
Retail Growth and Expansion
Lead the retail growth strategy, strengthening our existing major high street partnership while identifying the right new opportunities across supplements, wellness, beauty, pharmacy, grocery, premium specialist channels, and selected international markets.
This includes building strong retailer relationships, leading commercial conversations, shaping account plans, and understanding which products are best suited to which retail environments — from premium positioning to volume growth.
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Retail Performance
Own retail trading performance, ensuring the channel delivers against revenue, margin, and growth expectations.
This includes managing forecasts, trading calendars, performance reviews, pricing, promotions, stock planning, and retailer requirements, while working closely with finance, operations, and supply chain to deliver strong commercial outcomes.
Brand & Omnichannel Alignment
Ensure retail supports the wider Absolute Collagen ecosystem, including DTC, ecommerce, brand, marketing, product education, and customer experience.
This includes making sure retail activity drives discovery, trial, and repeat purchase, while supporting brand positioning through credible messaging, clear efficacy-led education, strong launches, campaigns, activations, and retailer partnerships.
Experience & Capability
The successful candidate will bring:
- You may already be a Head of Retail, or you may be a strong Senior National Account Manager or Senior Retail Lead ready to step into a broader role.
- You will bring strong retail experience, ideally within supplements, wellness, beauty, pharmacy, FMCG, or a related consumer category. Experience working with Boots or a similar major UK retailer is important.
- You will be commercially sharp, proactive, and confident managing retailer relationships, negotiations, performance, and growth plans.
- You will be someone who brings ideas and executes them. You will be comfortable thinking strategically, but just as willing to get into the detail and make things happen.
You will bring:
- A strong retailer network.
- Experience managing major retail accounts.
- Strong commercial judgement and confidence with P&L, pricing, forecasting, and trading conversations.
- An entrepreneurial, go-getting mindset.
- The ability to balance premium brand positioning with volume growth.
- Experience managing and developing at least one direct report.
- Confidence working cross-functionally with marketing, ecommerce, finance, operations, and supply chain.
- Energy, ownership, and a genuine passion for building brands customers love.
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