Senior Director, Head of Food Service UK - Leeds

Senior Director, Head of Food Service UK – Leeds

Location:
Leeds, GB

In this key role for Arla in the UK, we are looking for a leader that can create and lead an ambitious growth agenda within Arla and also externally in the industry. This is a challenging role, where you will use your end-to-end commercial understanding to define innovative ways to drive growth for the UK. The position reports to the Managing Director and is also part of the Leadership Team, where you will play a pivotal role in shaping and contributing to the strategic direction and success of the full UK organization as a business leader, rather than a Foodservice specialist.

How you will make an impact
As the Head of Foodservice in the UK, you will work closely with your team of over 20 colleagues to bring foodservice to the next ambitious level. With full P&L responsibility, you will develop and shape the foodservice agenda to reach the ambitious targets in our strategy Future26. Leading with a customer-centric mindset, you will set the right strategy for the business unit that captures the opportunities in the UK foodservice market and the needs of our customers.

Leading the foodservice function, you will:

• Build a clear strategy and yearly plans reflecting both local and global direction and priorities, while participating actively in both global and local strategy and yearly plan processes.
• Identify growth opportunities in Channels and Customers – driving brand share growth.
• Lead local foodservice portfolio development through innovations and market rollout from other markets.
• Conduct ongoing profitability optimization via portfolio and channel mix and net revenue management.
• Negotiate year-end agreements and contracts with key wholesalers, key end-user customers, and public tenders.
• Build excellent customer relationships resulting in strong joint business plans for growth with key customers.
• Develop and drive top-to-top relations with key customers.
• Externally engage in relevant advisory boards and communities.

As part of the UK Leadership Team, you will be managing the performance and driving growth for Arla in the UK foodservice market. You will also work closely with skilled foodservice colleagues from other markets, and you will be part of the Global Foodservice Leadership Team.

What will make you successful

With a strong commercial profile, you have worked across big customers in FMCG. You have a profound track record building customer relations and an excellent flair for detecting and developing business opportunities gained from sales or several commercial roles. You have successfully taken innovations from ideas to execution in the market, and you are familiar with managing and optimizing sizable budgets. You master all traits from strategizing to execution, and you are energized by both working with the long-term perspective and delivering short-term execution. In addition, your CV reflects several years of senior leadership experience, preferably at the leadership team level, during which you have successfully captained high-performing teams of colleagues and led through leaders. You thrive in a matrix organization with a complex stakeholder landscape and have ideally worked in both local and global roles. As the foodservice industry is very dynamic, you thrive in delivering results in the short term while responding to the long-term dynamics to secure we are also winning in the future.

How to Apply

Please apply on Success Factors using the application link. The deadline for applications is Wednesday, 26th February 2025. For any other information in relation to the role, please contact Rachel McDaid, Senior Talent Partner at or Melanie Williams, TA Manager at Shortlisting for the position will begin in March 2025.

We have a purpose for Good

At Arla, we strive to unlock the highest potential in each other while working together to create a sustainable future of dairy. We call it Stronger People Stronger Planet and it is deeply anchored in our organization and founded on our commitment to respecting human rights, increasing access to healthy dairy nutrition, inspiring good food habits, and improving the environment for future generations. In order to succeed, we need to hire people with a sustainable mindset. Could this be you?

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