Business Unit Lead

Description:

You might know Upfield, as we are a former Unilever business unit. We are the world's biggest food production company for Plant-Based products. In the UK we known for our brands like Flora, Elmlea, Stork, I Cant Believe its Not Butter and Violife (Vegan Cheese). We have both a Core Retail business as well as a growing Foodservice team. Our vision for a "Better Plant-Based Future" drives positive change in people's health, their daily lives, and our planet's sustainability. Important within Upfield is the focus on strong performing cross-category teams, to drive the most profitable growth, and development as teams and as individuals. 

This is a critical (and high profile) role within the UK&I Organisation, You will have direct P&L Responsibility for our Top 6 UK Retail Customers with a team of 5 Direct Reports (SNAM’s) and will own customer relationships at a Cat D level. Experience delivering large scale JBP Negotiation’s (inc Private Label) with a Multi-Year Focus is essential and a track record of taking ownership for S&OP/Forecasting is vital. It will be your responsibility to coach, develop and prepare your team for their next adventures within our global firm and continue our impressive track record of internal progression.

The role has a Cross-Functional focus within the UK market (a key market globally for Upfield) and you will contribute directly to our success with true ownership of both short term, and long term customer plans – the ability to build/maintain strong customer relationships in order to grow our business will be key. We have a global reach and you will liaise with internal stakeholders from both local and central teams. We are still young as a business (Founded in 2018) and the expectation is the successful candidate will help shape the development of strategy, direction and process within retail.

What does it take to be successful?

For our new Business Unit Lead, or as we call it, Sales Lead we are looking for a top performer with an outstanding sales background in FMCG retail. You are experienced managing multiple P&L’s at the same time, with a track record of delivering “the total number”. Line management capability is essential, ideally with a passion for leading and developing a team of people. (the previous Sales Lead has been promoted and is now Sales Director, your line manager)

As a person you have high energy, ability to engage with stakeholders at all levels and solve problems to drive the UK&I Business– Mindset is everything in our agile organization. The ability to identify, understand and implement solutions to complex problems and push process developments is also critical. You will need to be highly motivated, critical, organized, and resilient under pressure. We operate with a start-up mentality, where processes are to be challenged, improved and built.