Innovation Centre Manager in Leeds

Reports to: Head of Retail

Location: Leeds Wira Park

Purpose of role: As Innovation Centre Manager, you will lead the strategic direction and day-to-day operation of the Pack Positive Centre, ensuring that projects are prioritised to deliver the greatest value return for the business. The role will oversee the coordination, distribution, and output requirements of EPD for the packaging side of the business. Having responsibility for the Pack Positive Team in Leeds, they will ensure the maximum amount of work possible is directed into the creative team liaising with CAD and R&D for support where required. A central part of the role is to guarantee that all prototypes, creative and EPD submissions produced by the team meet the highest standards of quality and customer alignment, fully reflecting the brief and customer expectation. Working alongside Sales, R&D and Commercial you will regularly assess and score customers to determine appropriate levels of EPD resource allocation and output, factoring in conversion potential, sales performance, profitability and growth opportunities. Additionally, you will be responsible for hosting customer-facing innovation days, centre tours and engagement events designed to showcase new packaging technologies, materials and concepts, reinforcing the business’s capability and strengthening customer partnerships. In summary, the role ensures the Pack Positive Team is focused on the right projects, delivered to the right timelines and supported with the right resource to deliver the best value return possible. Strong collaboration with Sales, CAD and NPD departments will be essential to deliver innovation that drives commercial benefit and positions the packaging business as a leader in its field.

Principal Accountabilities:

• Drive the strategic direction of the Innovation Centre in line with the wider business growth strategy
• Manage the EPD process to ensure output is in line with customer’s agreed priority status, working in strong collaboration with the R&D Director and wider NPD team
• Drive continuous improvement across the Innovation Centre by maintaining a strong awareness of competitor offerings, industry trends and emerging technologies, ensuring the centre’s services,

Key Responsibilities:

• Drive high value creative output on EPD by focusing the creative team resource to customers and markets which deliver the best returns on a consistent basis
• Implement, review and improve department methods of operation
• Drive continuous improvement across the team to deliver year on year improvements in creative output and product launch lead times
• Reviewing and setting appropriate targets; developing employee skills and business processes to maximise output
• Responsible for driving sales through PPC, ensuring correct process is followed to deliver quality results to customers
• Responsible for the organisation and delivery of PPC customer visits and events to generate NPD and sales activity

Sales & Commercial:

• Understand each category’s product development and growth strategy for the next 2-5 years, whilst feeding in any relevant market changes seen through EPD briefs and Pack Positive Centre activity – this will be supplied by the R&D Director and the Group Sales Director
• Liaise with both BU commercial managers to understand the profit performance of all key accounts and product types
• Work closely with the Rivendell Commercial Manager to ensure accurate invoicing of completed projects and to supply forecasts for projected Pack Positive Centre sales

Supply Chain & Operations:

• Keep an awareness of Coveris manufacturing capabilities and capacity
• Ensure awareness of materials currently sourced across the sites and maintain alignment of material specifications used within the Centre
• Work with CAD and the site operational teams to ensure EPD brief outputs are deliverable within a 3-9 month timescale

Creative Centre:

• Support Marketing in building a high quality and consistent platform on which all Sales, NPD and Marketing presentations and are delivered
• Responsible for validating creative briefs and ensuring they are answered to a high standard through design and prototyping
• Lead creative research efforts – conducting observations, visiting trade shows and collating findings into actionable insights and trend reports to support Sales and Customers
• Ensure that the Centre reports on time spent on projects and understands the cost of time spent on briefs
• Recognise when disproportionate amount of time is spent on customer briefs relevant to the commercial return and develop feedback loops to ensure that the appropriate discussions take place with the relevant sales leads to manage customer expectations
• Monthly reporting on sales and project activity through the PPC
• As technology develops, introduce new tools and software which aid visual representation of concepts and standard business presentations such as 3D rendering etc
• Responsibility for WebCentre/ process improvements
• Ensure that prototyping capabilities evolve in line with the requirements of key growth categories aligned to the wider business strategy

Please note that this list is not exhaustive

Person specification – Who you need to be

• Communicate clearly across all areas of the business
• Strong project management skills
• Experience of CAD, NPD and EPD processes to deliver new products
• Knowledge of answering customer requirements through EPD and Creative briefs
• Experience of people management
• Have professional experience in Sales, Project Management and Packaging Development

In addition, you should be able to demonstrate the following behaviours and skills in line with our Rivendell values:

Make it Right:

• Show appreciation
• Embrace diversity
• Work together
• Care for our environment

Make it Better

• Innovate
• Embrace change
• Keep learning
• Strive to be the best