Country Manager Italy

Country Manager Italy

Rome, Milan, or Manchester-based • Full-time • Reports to: General Manager

This role requires relocation to Manchester, UK

Package: Competitive base + performance bonus + equity potential

Own the market. Build the business.

Hairburst sits where beauty meets wellbeing

We design effective, habit-forming hair growth solutions and the experiences that keep customers coming back. Clear routines, measurable results, products that earn a permanent spot in the bathroom.

We're owner-operators. In 2014 our founders launched Hairburst with £4k; in 2021 the brand joined a FTSE-100 group (JD Sports); in 2023 the founders bought back 100% to build the company we always wanted to run.

Our first chapter took us from a tiny start-up into a global, social-first beauty brand. Today you'll find us in Boots, Superdrug and Holland & Barrett, on marketplaces and DTC, backed by a loyal community of over 1 million customers.

Now we're building the infrastructure for what comes next. The Growth Studio brings brand, creative, performance, CRM, data, retail and marketplace into one room. Not as departments reporting up, but as collaborators solving the same problem. Weekly working sessions. One plan. Shared dashboards. AI accelerates the testing and sharpens the targeting, so you get campaign-ready ammunition without waiting for decisions from HQ.

Subscription economics that scale. Regional teams with real ownership. Craft and speed at the same time.

Hairburst is the first brand. It won't be the last.

Why this role, why now

Italy is a €1m business today with potential to reach €5-10m in 18-24 months. We're established in retail and marketplaces, but there's significant headroom: stronger DTC, subscription economics, creator partnerships, and proper localisation across beauty and wellness.

We need someone who can run it like it's theirs. Full P&L ownership, clear commercial mandate, real freedom to build the business properly for this market.

You'll be based in Manchester, UK, embedded with the Growth Studio and leadership team. This gives you faster decisions, better support, and direct access to the specialists who'll help you win. We're looking for someone with deep knowledge of Italy (the market, the language, the culture) who's ready to relocate to scale it from here.

We're open to operators who've run regions, channels, or categories in consumer brands, and to top-tier consultants looking for their first shot at ownership. The question isn't your background. It's whether you know this market and can show us how you'd build it.

This isn't a country manager role where you execute plans from head office. You set the strategy, make the commercial calls, own the results. The Growth Studio backs you with specialists, but you run the market.

We back potential over pedigree. If you've been running a region, channel, or category and you're ready to step up to full country ownership, we want to talk.

The mandate

Own the P&L. Full commercial ownership: revenue, margin, cash. You set targets, allocate spend, make trade-offs.

Set the strategy. Market positioning, channel priorities, pricing, promotional calendar, partnerships. You decide what wins here.

Drive commercial momentum. Build velocity across DTC, marketplaces (Amazon, local platforms), retail (negotiate listings, promotional plans, in-store activation), and subscription.

Make the market work. Localisation: product, packaging, claims, content. Market-specific activations, creator and influencer strategy, PR, partnerships. You know what resonates locally.

Run the operating rhythm. Weekly trading reviews, monthly forecasts, clear dashboards. Fast decisions with the Growth Studio, not through layers.

Manage cash and stock. Demand planning, inventory health, working capital. No surprises, no stock-outs, no dead inventory.

Build selectively. Hire key people when needed (marketplace lead, brand manager, retail coordinator). Small team, high output.

Partner with the Growth Studio. Weekly sessions with brand, creative, performance, CRM, data, retail and marketplace specialists. They give you the ammunition; you make the calls.

What success looks like (12 months)

✓ Revenue and contribution margin targets hit or exceeded

✓ Subscription economics improving (attach rate, LTV/CAC, retention)

✓ New channel or retail partnerships secured and performing

✓ Market-specific activations driving measurable brand lift and velocity

✓ Forecasting tight; inventory health strong; no cash surprises

✓ Clear dashboards by channel and product; commercial decisions made fast

✓ At least one structural improvement others can learn from

About you

Commercial operator. You've run P&Ls, channels, categories, or regions. You know the difference between growing revenue and growing profit. You make trade-offs without agonising.

Builder. Comfortable launching or scaling. You've built something from scratch or fixed something broken. You don't need perfect conditions to win.

Market instincts. You understand what works locally: pricing, positioning, promotions, partnerships, creator strategies. You don't just copy head office plans.

Hands-on and strategic. Comfortable reviewing a weekly P&L, negotiating with a retailer, briefing creative, analysing cohort data. You're across the detail without losing sight of the plan.

Bias to action. You test, learn, scale. Short cycles, clear reads. You kill what doesn't work and double down on what does.

Partner to specialists. You work well with the Growth Studio to get better outcomes faster. You translate strategy into execution and back again.

AI-literate. Already using AI to brief faster, analyse deeper, test smarter. You see it as leverage.

Standards. You tell the truth early, keep your promises, and protect the brand while driving growth.

Language: Fluent in Italian and English.

Signals we're looking for

→ P&L ownership, channel leadership, or regional management (beauty, wellness, consumer goods, D2C brands)

→ A before/after story: market/channel/category was here, you did this, now it's there (with numbers)

→ Evidence you've launched or scaled something (new market, channel, product)

→ Proof you've made commercial calls (pricing, promo, mix, partnerships) that balanced growth and margin

→ Examples of working cross-functionally to deliver results faster

→ 0→1 or turnaround experience is a strong plus

Your unfair advantage: The Growth Studio

Most Country Managers are alone. You'll have proper support without the bureaucracy.

Brand, creative, performance, CRM, data, e-commerce, retail and marketplace specialists, all around the same table.

Weekly working sessions. Clear reads, fast iteration, integrated campaigns. You set commercial priorities; they give you the ammunition.

AI accelerates testing, targeting, creative scoring, reporting. Speed without sacrifice.

One plan, shared dashboards. No politics, no waiting.

This is founder-speed execution with the infrastructure of a scaled business.

Apply

CV + 300 words total answering TWO prompts:

Everyone answers this:

What's the single biggest opportunity to grow Hairburst in Italy, and what's your 90-day plan to capture it?

PLUS one of these (choose based on your background):

For consumer brand operators:

Describe a time you made a commercial call (pricing, promo, mix, partnership, channel) where you had to balance competing priorities. What did you decide and why?

For consulting or strategy backgrounds:

Pick a consumer brand in Italy that's underperforming. Diagnose what's broken and outline the three commercial levers you'd pull in the first 90 days to turn it around.

How to apply: Add your responses as an appendix to your CV (single document) and submit via LinkedIn, or email to

Bullets are fine. Plain English. We're looking for your thinking, not AI-generated answers. It'll be obvious in the conversation if you've just used ChatGPT.

We'll only acknowledge complete applications (CV + appendix with both answers). If you've taken the time to answer properly, we'll get back to you within 48 hours.