Head of Food Development

The Company

With over 1300 coffee shops across the UK and more than 600 internationally across 30 countries, Costa is a global success story which continues to grow from strength to strength.

This is an exciting time to join this leading branded food and beverage business, who are now looking for an experienced and inspirational NPD / Category expert to support their ambitious plans in this prestigious and influential role.

The Role

As Head of Food Development you’ll be instrumental in creating, managing and implementing the UK food strategy to drive Costa’s food credentials in terms of taste, freshness, value and variety. You’ll be accountable for category management and UK consumer insights, applying effective strategies to promote the development of supplier relationships, commercials and operations interface. Working closely with the UK Insights Manager, you’ll use your market knowledge and expertise to drive rationale for the strategic direction of food development, ensuring that the agenda fits with the UK brand values.

You will lead and support Category Development team as well as liaising closely with Suppliers, Marketing and Procurement teams across multiple functions, taking accountability for long and short term strategic development initiatives to drive this prominent brand forward to stay ahead of its competitors. You will also play a major role in meeting targets for sales and margin whilst taking direct budgetary responsibility to achieve brand strategies in line with agreed costings and deadlines. In addition you will lead your teams to success by providing the right level of motivation and personal development, driving brand values ensuring the team structures are robust enough for the company's growth plans.

The Candidate

We are looking for a highly accomplished and commercially focussed Senior NPD or Category professional educated to degree level with extensive experience of driving strategic development within a fast paced FMCG retail or manufacturing environment. To be successful in this role you’ll need to have experience of directing teams in a cross-functional capacity where you have acquired a proven track record of delivering substantial NPD strategies and simultaneous projects within set budgets and timescales.

You’ll have amazing leadership and people management skills are essential along with first class project management, organisational and influencing skills as you will be working in collaboration with diverse internal and external teams to achieve and exceed business objectives within a very competitive market. You'll need to be driven, methodical in your approach and have the commercial acumen needed to ensure the success of this well known brand.

If you are looking for that rare opportunity to make your mark in a high profile position with a continually expanding food and beverage business then apply now or call 0845 2600 737.

A Recruitment and Product Solutions Consultancy working exclusively within the Food & Drinks industry. Blue Spark was created by food specialists dedicated to building a recruitment consultancy with a difference.