Factory General Manager

At Valeo Foods UK we bring together a family of much-loved UK food brands supported by the scale and ambition of a global investment partner. From Kettle’s bold crunch to Rowse’s natural sweetness, through to Matthew Walker and Barratt Sweets, our portfolio blends heritage, craft and category-leading innovation. Alongside our branded portfolio, we are also one of the UK’s largest suppliers of private label products, partnering with major retailers to deliver quality and category expertise that meets the needs of millions of households every week. As a business, we’re on a journey of transformation. We’re strengthening our operations, driving quality and investing in our people. It’s an exciting, fast-moving environment where heritage meets new thinking, and where every colleague contributes to shaping the future of food across the UK. Join us and play your part in building the next chapter of some of Britain’s most loved brands.

Gateshead isn’t just the home of Manomasa tortillas, it’s a flagship Valeo Foods UK site with a deeply engaged workforce, and ambitious plans for future growth and investment. As we enter a pivotal phase of transformation and operational excellence, we’re looking for a Factory General Manager to lead the site with confidence, clarity and commercial strength. This is a role with real breadth and visibility. As Site Leader, you’ll have full accountability for performance across Safety, Quality, Cost, Service and People, leading a multi‑disciplined team spanning Production, Engineering, Technical, HSE and Warehouse. Working closely with central and category teams, you’ll ensure the site delivers today while building capability for the future. Above all, you’ll set the tone, shaping culture, developing leaders and ensuring Gateshead remains a great place to work. You’ll take ownership of budgets and financial performance, driving cost control, efficiency improvement and loss reduction while maintaining strong, credible relationships with our UK retail and branded customers. Quality and service are non‑negotiable: the Manomasa brand is bold, differentiated and loved by consumers, and our customers rely on us for consistency, reliability and innovation. Your leadership will ensure those standards are met every day.

At its heart, this role is about people. Gateshead has a proud, committed workforce, and your leadership will shape their experience. You’ll strengthen engagement and communication across the site, build succession and talent plans, and embed a culture where continuous improvement, ownership and accountability feel natural.

This is a complex, fast‑moving FMCG operation, so you’ll be highly comfortable operating at scale within food manufacturing, with strong operational and commercial grounding and the confidence to lead multifunctional teams in a high‑performance environment. With further investment on the horizon, you’ll play a key role in leading change ensuring initiatives land well, deliver value and strengthen the long‑term capability of the factory. This is a rare opportunity to lead a high‑profile, high‑potential site at an exciting point in its journey. If you’re motivated by operational excellence, energised by transformation, and passionate about leading large, diverse teams, Gateshead offers a genuine platform to make a lasting impact within Valeo Foods UK.

Benefits: Competitive Salary, Bonus