Senior Product Development Manager - Level 4

All About Food Ltd; Manchester; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading FMCG company is seeking a Senior Product Development Manager to own and lead the food development process. This role involves managing relationships with brand owners and overseeing product innovation and renovation. Candidates should have over 10 years of food development experience, preferably in retail or manufacturing settings. The position is office-based in Manchester and offers a range of benefits including private medical insurance and a pension scheme.

Benefits

Pension Matched up to 8%

Bupa Private Medical Insurance

VIP Co-op Live Access

Sample Scheme (£20 per month)

Surprise & Delight Scheme

Paid Sabbatical after 5 years

Qualifications

• 10+ years of food development experience is preferred.
• Experience in retail food development or large manufacturing is preferred.
• Ambient food experience is required; chilled and frozen experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own and manage relationships with Brand Owners.
• Lead food development process from concept to launch.
• Ensure compliance with Brand License Agreement.
• Conduct competitive benchmarking for food trends.

Skills

Food development experience

Consultative selling

Cost management

Project management

Job description

Senior Product Development Manager – Level 4

Office based, full-time

This is a great time to join All About Food. We are a rapidly growing FMCG business with a £100M+ turnover with high growth ambitions. With 25 years’ experience in licensing, we are the business that makes restaurant brands successful in retail. You may not have heard of us, but we are confident that you will know the brands we market in the UK & Ireland.

Our portfolio of partnerships includes Nando’s, Costa Coffee, PizzaExpress, Wagamama, Pret-a-Manger and others.

At the heart of our business is a set of core values that underpins everything we do.

We believe we succeed as a team, and strive to get better, be better and achieve more together every day. Our team know we are in it together, and it always feels like it.

Primary Role

• Own, manage relationships with Senior contacts within Brand Owners Food Teams to influence and deliver our innovation and renovation plans, using consultative selling approach, to deliver best quality and costs
• Own and manage Brand Owner and Third party manufacturer relationships, influencing senior contacts within our 3PM to deliver best quality at the best cost, efficiently through the factory
• Own and lead the on-going renovation strategy to delivery improvedcompetitiveness & profitability including design to value project
• Diagnose and minimise cost impacts of ingredients, semi-finished goods, inclusion level, standardisation, raw material consolidation and synergistic ingredients to identify cost saving opportunities, working with procurement to minimise cost inflation.
• Lead regular competitive benchmarking to understand competitor design to value changes.
• Troubleshoot and diagnose against product or packaging opportunities, building a plan with clear project aims and objectives to align with senior stakeholders .
• Influence 3rd party manufacturers and brand owners to make product changes, through the consultative selling approach.
• Own and lead food development process and food COGs optimisation projects from concept to launch, with 100% adherence to gate process, including:
• Clear and comprehensive manufacturer briefing including competitor benchmarking
• Developing products to the expected standards and costs, including in person development days alongside Brand Owner Senior Food teams
• Approving products through all stages of development to first production
• Ensure successful Brand Owner Exec sign off
• Ensuring successful Trial production
• Ensuring all products comply with the Brand License Agreement and the brand standards
• Own and lead the Food Development Process, ensuring adherence to the process and delivering process improvements where possible to deliver the Food agenda in the optimum timeframe
• Own and lead food trend evaluation, identifying the “next big thing” across the range of categories, alongside brand and category teams to drive long term innovation pipeline
• LeadinnovationsessionswithBrandOwnersandManufacturers

Requirements

Preferred Experience:

• 10years+fooddevelopmentexperience
• Worked in either or both Retail food development (for supermarket) or for a large manufacturer
• Must have ambient food experience, optional for chilled and frozen

Team:

Employment Type:

Location:

Workplace Type:

Pension Matched up to 8%
(Salary Sacrifice or Auto-Enrolment)

Bupa Private Medical Insurance
(Including existing medical conditions)

VIP Co-op Live Access

Sample Scheme
(£20 per month to spend on our products)

Surprise & Delight Scheme; VIP days including Royal Ascot and Wimbledon.

Paid Sabbatical
(1 month after 5 years service)

Address: Fourways House, Hilton St, Manchester M1 2EJ