come + join us!

Location: Near Henley-on-Thames – you’ll be able to work flexibly between home and our lovely Barns

Reports to: Senior Portfolio Manager (Senior Makes Friendly Stuff)

Contract: 12 month contract (Monday to Friday), 9am to 5pm

Purpose of Role

Support the Making Friendly Stuff (Portfolio Management) team with best-in-class range management. Ensuring that our NPD + EPD launches are grounded in commercial imperatives and ready to go on time. Lead the creation of a fully aligned product communication strategy and work effectively with the comms and shopper teams to execute and evaluate effectively for both NPD and core range.

Role activities / responsibilities:

Product communications strategy: Work with the Senior Portfolio Manager <12m and 1-5 Portfolio Manager to create a Product Comms strategy that sets the direction for the Comms and Shopper teams.

• Develop a Product Comms strategy that supports the delivery of our Marketing Strategy and Masterplans. Define a proposition statement by range that delivers a single minded and motivating reason for shoppers to choose us.
• Be the bridge between the comms, shopper and other relevant teams to develop a joined-up annual comms plan that delivers against the Product Comms strategy.
• Establish our message matrix that supports our always-on communication and campaign activations for new launches.
• Inspiring internal teams and agencies around the ‘why’ behind the product
• Set clear objectives for comms/shopper initiatives and work with the teams to agree an evaluation process that drives continuous improvement.

Portfolio Management: Support the <12m and 1-5 Senior Portfolio Managers in understanding the portfolio dynamics and shaping a 3-year EPD/NPD and comms strategy.

• Use category, shopper and commercial data to understand Ella’s and competitor portfolio dynamics and make informed recommendations to enhance the portfolio’s performance.
• Work with our nutritionist and the technical team to set out our benchmarking and claims guidelines by range, which supports our on-pack and online communication direction.

EPD + NPD project Delivery – Manage and support on EPD + NPD projects for the UK + Around the World as required by:

• Creating compelling propositions for products and packs that deliver against our Business Strategy and Masterplans and are routed in shopper/consumer insight - what is the problem this proposition will solve?
• Championing our consumers by keeping them front of mind – be Kids First always!
• Working with the innovation team to create compelling and commercially viable ‘8P’ briefs.
• Owning the delivery of stand-out packaging (design + pack format) for your projects through the gate process.
• Owning on-pack messaging and claims ensuring they meet our claims guidelines and are relevant and motivating for Parents + Carers

Ready to sell delivery – Setting our innovation up for success by:

• Working with key partners + internal teams to ensure 3D + optimised images are within brand guidelines and readily available for retailers + distributors. Ensure product information is correct on retail channels.
• Work with the Group Portfolio Manager to develop inspiring sell-in stories for our retail partners, giving our product ranges the best chance of success.
• Championing the voice of the consumer throughout the Barns organising inspiring launch sell-ins and updates for colleagues in the barns and arranging stakeholders tasting of our NPD + EPD.
• Create internal briefing documents and deliver handover sessions to Customer Experience, Comms, GSWD and Shopper Teams.
• Support Senior Portfolio Managers to develop and deliver performance reports which pull together consumer, category, commercial and operational data to ensure we correctly evaluate the success of a launch and maintain focus on the SKUs.

Other Stuff

• Be an active member of the wider Friends team by collaborating and contributing your passion and ideas.
• Support the wider friends team activities as required.

You will need:

• • Brand or Product Management experience within FMCG
  • Great organisational skills and attention to detail. Ability to juggle multiple tasks at once.
  • Natural creativity, with an imaginative approach to problem solving.
  • Excellent influencing skills – the ability to persuade stakeholders of the commercial, consumer and brand value of a product proposition.
  • A real passionate team player with the ability to work cross-functionally and with our friends outside of Ella’s
  • Demonstrable the ability to live and breathe our values: Win Together, Own It, We’re Childlike, Be Curious, Foster Inclusion

Purpose of role:

• To be lead Category manager for UK Grocery Accounts
• Deliver insight from all available retailer data sources that drives tangible business results
• Contribute to creation of a ‘Category-First’ mentality at Ella’s Kitchen
• Equip and encourage the business to make category

Role activities / responsibilities:

• Category Leadership with Top 4 Grocers (50%)

(Accounts to be confirmed during interview)

1. a. Build category relationships with the internal and external customer teams so that you understand the needs, motivations, and aspirations of both businesses, producing win:win category recommendations…
2. b. …Use all available data sources to do so:
   1. i. Be the expert when it comes to IRI data, understand their performance, and identify their (and our) category opportunities for growth
   2. ii. Overlay Kantar consumer metrics to hone analysis and recommendations
3. c. Be a key part of range planning processes
4. d. Utilise Space Planning to:
   1. i. measure space to sales
   2. ii. highlight opportunities
   3. iii. bring range recommendations to life

• Other retailers (30%)

(Accounts to be confirmed during interview)

1. a. Build relationships with other grocery retailer teams (internally and externally) so that you understand the needs, motivations, and aspirations of both businesses, producing win:win category recommendations…
2. b. …Use all available data sources to do so:
   1. i. Be the expert when it comes to IRI data, understand their performance, and identify their (and our) category opportunities for growth
   2. ii. Overlay Kantar consumer metrics to hone analysis and recommendations
3. c. Be a key part of the range planning process in these accounts.

• 3) Internal Focus (20%):
  1. a. Help curate, develop and deploy our Ella’s Kitchen Category Vision internally, leading the entire organisation towards a ‘Category-First’ mentality.
  2. b. Equip our commercial teams so that they can mine their own ad-hoc data, and help them to think wider than Ella’s when measuring success (our ‘tail’ vs the Category ‘tail’)
  3. c. Champion how Mums and Dads behave when shopping in all internal discussions (e.g. NPD Funnel and the development of sell-in 1-pagers & decks), which will include leading category inductions.
  4. d. Ensure that our (Friends) qualitative insight is developed beyond brand and thus, along with continuous quantitative data sources (IRI / Kantar / Dunnhumby), equips us with best in class sales stories for NPD and range architecture
  5. e. Provide ad hoc support on ROS, Distribution and Category inputs for NPD projects.

You will need:

• To embrace, embody and exude all that is special and unique about Ella’s Kitchen

• Excellent commercial skills

• An understanding of Category Fundamentals vs Management vs Leadership

• Proactive ‘do-er’, keen to be involved in the success of the team

• Ability to thrive in an entrepreneurial, fast paced environment

• Relationship building skills – getting the best out of others to achieve the plan

• The ability to influence others through your flexible style

• Great communication skills

• A results focussed mindset with the ability to “never never give up” and find solutions to challenges

• Experience of online retailing

• Passionate about systems with the ability to utilise technology for continuous improvement

• Passion for the brand and what Ella’s stands for – improving children’s lives through healthy relationships with food.

Experience of the following would be advantageous:

• Nielsen Answers
• IRI Plussuite
• i2C
• Dunnhumby
• Kantar
• Space Planning
• Retailer relationships, ideally with top four supermarkets

And What You’ll Get In Return:

• Bucket loads of training and development, supporting your career pathway
• Competitive salary
• Discretionary bonus scheme
• A Box of Treats, including private medical, dental, pension, life assurance, 25 days holiday and the ability to buy more, high street discounts, amazing wellbeing events, Give It A Go days… to name but a few!
• A really awesome place to come to work … our beautiful Barns in the Oxfordshire countryside, but the flexibility to achieve a good work/life blend