Innovation Manager - Breakfast and New Categories

Innovation Manager - Breakfast and New Categories

Permanent

Based in St Albans/Hybrid 50% WFH

Premier Foods is a business with strong momentum and ambitious plans to accelerate within the UK and Internationally. Innovation is central to the company’s growth plans; we aim to deliver an incremental 10% of turnover every year from Innovation, across every category. That puts this role at the heart of the growth agenda for the business.

• Our acquisition of FUEL10K – alongside our recent entry into Porridge with our innovation Ambrosia ready-to-eat product – makes Breakfast a particularly exciting, high potential category for the business to accelerate.
• We are looking for a talented individual to work within the Breakfast and New Categories team, taking responsibility for design and delivery to market of an innovation pipeline across brands including FUEL10K and Ambrosia.

• The primary focus of the role will be Breakfast innovation pipeline (Cereals, Drinks, Porridge, Breakfast-to-Go, plus other new products & formats). However, there will also be some opportunity to work on the wider New Categories agenda – for example, taking FUEL10K into new sectors outside breakfast.

• Premier’s lean organisation structure creates a culture of personal ownership and direct responsibility for results. Innovation managers take overall responsibility to lead their projects through the Gate process, and have frequent exposure to our Executive team as part of Gate meetings and other strategic reviews.

• This is a stretching and potentially rewarding entry point into Innovation at Premier Foods. Success could open up further personal growth & development opportunities within the role, or a path to other Innovation roles in the mid-term.

What you'll be doing.....?

• You will be responsible for building a pipeline of Innovation and delivering this successfully to market, with primary focus on Breakfast (FUEL10K, Ambrosia) and some responsibility for wider New Categories innovation across Premier Foods brands.

• Innovation will be one of the major incremental growth drivers to Premier Foods business over the next few years, growing our brands’ penetration and usage beyond traditional occasions. It will also be critical to helping FUEL10K exceed full growth rate ambitions post-acquisition.

You will…

• define the most attractive “where to play” spaces within Breakfast, taking into account scalability & consumer needs
• develop “big bet” concept, product & packaging innovation that enables Premier Foods to win in those focus areas
• lead innovation projects through the Gate process, aligning up to Exec level and securing the required resource
• take accountability for the P&L on those innovation projects, ensuring they are scalable and profitable for the business
• lead the wider cross-functional team to deliver success including R&D, Factory, 3rd Party & Commercial stakeholders
• stay connected to the external landscape & available technologies, and apply this knowledge to our pipeline.

• be part of the Breakfast & New Categories team alongside Brand Management, Insights, Commercial Planning.

• partner closely with a wider cross-functional team that spans R&D, Factory, Sales and Finance.

• report into the Head of Product, who will take a senior leadership role across total Breakfast and New Categories.

• step up to take the strategic & operational lead for key projects, energising the full organisation to move at pace to deliver big bets.

What we need from you....?

• 5-10 years experience within an FMCG or other brand-led organisation.

• Innovation experience encompassing strategy, business case development, cross-functional team leadership, market delivery.

• A track record of delivering successful big bet innovation to market with proven scale.

• Strong bias for action, a high degree of personal accountability and an entrepreneurial spirit.

• Desire to identify new ideas and ways of working, encouraging teams to think “outside the box” to make things happen.

• Strong commercial orientation; comfortable analysing market data, digging under the surface to uncover insights, making compelling business recommendations, ensuring we can bring our biggest ideas to market in a profitable way.

• A strong collaborator and leader of others within a cross-functional team – inspiring them to “go the extra mile”.

• Personal Impact and Influence; proven ability to communicate clearly & concisely to win support from senior stakeholders.

• Effective at prioritising, “putting first things first” to deliver a complex innovation programme across multiple categories.

What we offer you in return...?

• Competitive salary
• Car Allowance
• Bonus
• Up to 7.5% pension
• Private medical insurance
• Life assurance
• Wide range of online and in-house training
• Access to an employee discount scheme, with access to hundreds of nationwide retailers

Ready to apply...?

Click apply, submitting an up-to-date CV tailored to this opportunity. We look forward to hearing from you.

A great British food company 

Premier Foods is one of Britain’s biggest listed food companies, employing over 4,000 colleagues at 15 manufacturing sites and offices up and down the country.

Many of our brands have been part of UK life for more than a century and you’ll find them in 94% of British households.

At Premier foods we believe in inclusion, authenticity and individuality. We aim to ensure all existing and future colleagues are given equitable opportunities and are respected, valued and encouraged to bring their true authentic selves to work no matter who they are, what they look like, who they love or what they believe in. Our culture is one where everyone is welcome.