Commercial Director - Sports
Reporting to: CEO
Territory Responsibility: Group
Direct Reports: Senior Group Retail Business Manager(s), Group Retail Business Manager(s), Group Marketing Manager, Group Brand Manager(s) – Sports division only
Key Stakeholders: Country General Managers
Department: Commercial
Job Band: MGMT
Hudson Group is an international retailer and distributor primarily involved in the sport and fashion wear sectors. The Group’s head office is in Malta but is also present through offices in Italy, Cyprus, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya and Algeria. Though Hudson Holdings was founded in 2006, the Group’s roots reach as far back as 1987 when the first pair of NIKE was sold in Malta.
Role Overview
The Commercial Director – Sports is responsible for defining and executing the division’s commercial strategy across the sports brand portfolio, ensuring alignment with Group objectives while delivering sustainable revenue and profitability across all markets.
The role leads the Go-To-Market strategy, oversees multi-channel performance across wholesale, retail, e-commerce, and partnerships, and drives business development and market expansion. Working closely with Country General Managers and brand partners, the Commercial Director ensures strong brand execution, effective distribution, and consistent commercial growth across B2B and B2C environments.
Wholesale is a core growth engine for the division, serving as a primary lever for market penetration, brand scaling, and capital-efficient expansion across existing and new territories.
The key duties and responsibilities of the role are as follows:
- Define and execute the commercial strategy for the Sports division aligned with Group growth ambitions and brand priorities.
- Lead Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy across B2B and B2C channels, ensuring alignment of product, marketing, merchandising, retail, wholesale, and e-commerce execution.
- Own commercial planning, budgeting, and forecasting, including revenue, margin, cost, and inventory targets.
- Drive business development initiatives to unlock new revenue streams, partnerships, and distribution opportunities.
- Lead market expansion strategy, including entry planning, distribution model design, and partner identification for new territories.
- Lead wholesale growth strategy across markets, positioning the channel as a primary driver of revenue scale, brand reach, and market penetration.
- Own strategic key account relationships across major wholesale partners, negotiating commercial terms, distribution strategy, and long-term growth plans.
- Define wholesale commercial frameworks including pricing architecture, assortment strategy, margin structure, partner segmentation, and performance expectations.
- Guide and align with Country General Managers to ensure strong execution of global strategies across retail and wholesale environments.
- Maintain and strengthen relationships with global brand partners, suppliers, distributors, and key accounts.
- Translate market intelligence, customer insights, and country feedback into actionable commercial decisions.
- Act as a key decision-maker for inventory management including seasonal buy strategies, pricing parameters, in-season trading actions, activations, and product performance response.
- Lead, develop, and performance manage Brand, Retail Business, and Marketing teams, fostering a high-performance commercial culture.
How you will be measured:
Financial Targets
- Sales and gross margin performance against annual targets across brands and channels (shared with Country General Managers).
- Revenue growth, key account expansion, distribution quality, and channel mix optimisation aligned to brand strategy.
- New business pipeline delivery and market expansion performance (launch timing, revenue, profitability).
Marketing & Brand Execution
- Alignment of marketing and VM across countries through timely delivery of clear brand guidelines.
- Consistency of brand experience across channels and markets.
- Customer engagement and campaign effectiveness across B2B and B2C environments.
Team Performance & Development
- Quarterly performance reviews with Brand, Retail Business, and Marketing Managers.
- Progress against defined commercial objectives.
- Capability development and succession planning.
Stakeholder & Supplier Engagement
- Supplier scorecard performance (quality, reliability, compliance, responsiveness).
- Go-To-Market execution accuracy and timeliness.
- Commercial improvements achieved through negotiations (discounts, terms, freight, allocation).
Core competencies, knowledge, and experience
- Strong strategic mindset with proven commercial leadership experience (10+ years) within sports industry
- Demonstrated success leading wholesale and multi-channel commercial strategy, including business development, market expansion, and strategic partnerships.
- Deep understanding of commercial planning, forecasting, margin management, and P&L across multi-brand and multi-country environments.
- Advanced understanding of merchandising, pricing, brand management, and marketing within complex retail ecosystems.
- Collaborative leadership style with the ability to align and influence cross-functional, multicultural teams and senior stakeholders, including board exposure.
- Strong communication and influencing skills, with a track record of driving decision-making and execution at executive level.
- Commitment to sustainability, innovation, and customer-centric decision-making.
- Fluency in English; additional languages an advantage.
