Development Manager

Development Manager

It has never been a more exciting time to be part of a forward thinking company and a site that is delivering commercial success year on year. We are looking for amazing talent who can support the success of the site now and into the future.

Bakkavor Group is a leading manufacturer in the fresh prepared food market, specialising in developing private-label products for top global grocery retailers and well-known international foodservice operators.

Our Bakkavor site in Newark, which is part of our Desserts division, specialises in cream cakes and trifles and we are market leaders in both categories. To give a feel for the scale of manufacturing we produce 150 million units of cream cakes each year. We employ 1600 people and have plans to grow this significantly over the next 3 years.

This is due to new business which will be supplied from the site from this summer.

Summary
Development Manager opportunity to work on delicious desserts, leading a team to develop and manage a range of products for the UK’s major food retailers from concept through to launch in line with the strategy.

Your responsibilities:

• Develop and agree the Development Plan for the Business / Site in line with the Business / Category Strategy.
• Innovates new products and processes for a medium size business to:-
• Maintain and extend current categories
• To deliver new products and processes outside the current categories.

• To recruit, lead, motivate and inspire direct reports up to Product Manager level to achieve personal development and continual improvement.
• Manage focused development of new products to deliver the BU budgeted margin.
• Delivers development ahead of our competitors through understanding the wants and needs of both internal and external customers.
• Presents current and new categories to customers backed up the rationale. Influences and persuades customers to accept changes, new categories etc.
• Uses the principles of category management to gain a true understanding of the wants and needs of the consumer in order to develop successful categories to meet these needs.
• Manages critical paths for specific categories / business and plans, organises and controls the resources to deliver new product development concepts to an agreed quality and timescale.
• Monitors and benchmarks product quality of existing and new products in the Business and ensure that the Business Executive Team / Site Ops Team agrees an action plan.

What you will need

The ideal candidate will have:

• Experience working with UK major retailers
• Experience in FMCG environment, preferably  in similar level concept development role
• Confidence with IT and fully literate with PC’s
• People management experience
• Must have good knowledge of food trends and culinary skills

Experience in a food related role, a passion for food and an eye for detail. You must be able to work in a fast paced environment with tight deadline and ever evolving briefs which will delight our customers.

In return you will receive a competitive salary plus pension, bonus and healthcare
 

Shifts Monday to Friday 8.30 – 17.00