UK & Ireland Category Development Lead (13 months FTC)

Here at innocent, we’re on a mission to make it easier for everyone to get more fruit and veg into their bodies. We started back in 1999 and since then we’ve gone from selling a few smoothies at a music festival to becoming one of Europe’s biggest drinks companies with around 1,000 people (and the B Corp seal of approval). It’s nice to be able to say things like that but we’re not patting ourselves on the back just yet. We want to show everyone that it’s possible to be a successful business while looking after people and the planet too, so we’re trying to get better in pretty much every way. And that’s where this job comes in.

What you’ll be doing

We’re looking for someone special who can lead our UK&I Category Development team to turn excellent market and shopper analysis and insight into tangible plans for our retailers/customers and for the business. If you get a buzz from applying trends, finding those elusive nuggets of insight that unlock growth opportunities for us, our customers and our drinkers, and leading our team in high-profile and growing channels, then this could be the role for you. You will be comfortable with leading teams and rolling your sleeves up as necessary when it comes to detailed data analysis, stepping back to see the big picture, using it to build a compelling story, and ably influencing stakeholders internally and externally.

You’ll own the narrative around local market performance, the key drivers of growth in our category, and our performance within it – making you the ‘go-to’ expert when it comes to understanding category, retailer, competitor, channel and shopper performance. You’ll be working closely with the European Category Development Lead as part of a wider category network across Europe. You’ll be an important input into the European Category Strategy and will then lead the tailoring and application as appropriate for the UK and Ireland strategic accounts. You’ll be working alongside cross-functional teams to help the business make sound insight-based decisions. The analysis and insight you and your team will provide will be hugely valuable to unlocking opportunities across the UK & Ireland.

You will also develop channel strategies for online, convenience and Food To Go, with clear KPIs and action plans on how we can drive growth for the category and innocent.

You’ll have

• Build great relationships with external customers and internal stakeholders, so we can create a first-class outcome for them.
• Lead and inspire a direct and indirect team in our journey to develop best-in-class practices and outcomes.
• Senior experience working with category management in FMCG category.
• Solid experience of senior level internal and external (min. Senior Buyer level) stakeholder management.
• Experience working in OOH channels (Convenience, QSR, Wholesale, Foodservice, etc.) and Discounters, with experience working with the traditional big 4 grocery accounts.
• Balance short, medium and long-term category development requirements, ensuring that influencing for the long-term development of the category is as important as the near-in.
• Manipulate and analyse data sets and other sources to get to the ‘why’ and ‘so what’.
• Organisational and multi-tasking skills, with a high level of attention to detail – and instilling this in your team so that nothing is left behind on that busy ‘to do’ list.
• Solid experience working with Nielsen/IRI and Kantar data and their respective platforms, while maximising added value from strategic agency relationships.

You’ll get

• The chance to lead a highly collaborative, responsible, knowledgeable and supportive team that is building great relationships with our customers.
• The opportunity to make a real impact – both externally with retailers, and internally championing the category within cross-functional teams.
• Team leadership of direct and indirect reports as well as coaching of wider team members.
• Accountability to help lead the category development agenda across the UK & Ireland.
• The opportunity to be part of the UK&I Go-to-Market Leadership team.
• The opportunity to put drinkers and shoppers at the heart of decision-making.
• The chance to partner strategically for sustainable growth of the category.

We want innocent to be a great place to work, so we do lots of stuff to make people feel at home and try to make sure everyone’s career is shaping up the way they want it to. There are plenty of opportunities to have a go at something new or take things further. In exchange for helping us do business in the right way, you’ll get a solid rewards package that includes a salary, private healthcare, a target-based bonus, and a bunch of other nice things like a day off on your birthday. And yes, you get free smoothies. We also know that not all our drinkers come from the same background, or think the same – so why should we? At innocent, we want to be a great place to work where a diverse bunch of people from all backgrounds can turn up and thrive. When we hire, we want all the juice, bits, and pulp that make you who you are. Even if you don’t think you can tick all the boxes, if the job sounds right for you, come and throw your hat in the ring.

Probably best to get your skates on though, as we might close this early if we get loads of applications.