IPN is one of the biggest independent owner manufacturers and suppliers of pet food in the UK. Driven by the stand-out growth of the Harringtons brand and its first acquisition of the Barking Heads and AATU brands, IPN is now a £170m+ turnover business, employing over 300 people at three sites in Thirsk, North Yorkshire (HQ), Bodelwyddan, North Wales and Hemel Hempstead, Herts.
The pet market is booming, making for a very resilient and attractive market and following the acquisition of the business by CapVest partners in December 2020, IPN is now one of the leading platforms for growth in the Pet industry. We are unique in scale, with multi-category coverage, owner manufacture status, coverage of the market through a complementary brand portfolio and we have accessibility to consumers through multi-channel availability.
To support with this growth, IPN are building and reshaping their Brand Marketing team to include some fantastic new roles including this great Brand Manager role, responsible for managing their portfolio of super premium specialist brands, including the new acquired AATU brand.
As Brand Manager, you will work closely with the Marketing Director and team to make IPN the clear platform leader in dog across dry and wet dog food, maximising market coverage across different consumer needs and channels. Together, you will create and lead the marketing portfolio, platform and product pipeline to enable IPN brands to successfully step change growth and relevance.
As Brand Manager you will:
- Provide clear consumer and shopper led insight and data leading brand and business plans and direction
- Create clear strategies for growth and translating into clear and easily understood business and growth objectives
- Have accountability for the brand portfolio strategy and business plan.
- Engage with external stakeholders, retailers, and internal office and production teams with clear and inspiring plans to drive long-term growth
- Demonstrate a clear understanding of any barriers to growing our dog business and create clear commercial and consumer plans to make your brands fast growing and highly relevant.
- Deliver a healthy and incremental innovation and product pipeline
- Understand trends and consumer and shopper needs to develop a clear and inspiring growth pipeline from concept validation to launch
- Work cross-functionally with both product development and commercial teams to bring ideas from concept & feasibility to market launch.
- Create the right range and product portfolio that maximises growth and coverage of key sectors and needs
- Create strong, measurable and effective media and creative campaigns that drive cut-through, brand salience and sales growth
- Lead the commercial teams to win in store, growing retailer engagement and space for our brands and portfolio
We are looking for a marketer with the potential to grow and develop within our fast-growing business. You will have extensive experience gained in fast paced FMCG businesses and “classical” brand marketing experience. We want to someone with huge amounts of creative talent and shared ambition who wants to accelerate their career in a like-minded fast moving and fast-growing environment.
We are looking for someone with:
- Proven experience & accountability in leading brand growth plans, including personal evidence of improving brand health or growth.
- Proven experience in managing a multiple stakeholder environment at a Senior Leader / Board level
- Proven technical innovation experience and the ability to create compelling concepts and turn them into incremental growth platforms
- Proven ability to brief, lead and deliver the media process with experience in successful media and creative campaigns –both in conventional TV and digital, social and influencer marketing.
- Commercially literate with proven experience in working with and influencing retailer & buying teams
- Data literate and commercial –strong analytical skills and experience turning data into clear and compelling insight –ideally using IRI / Nielsen or other syndicated data partners.
We are looking for a strong self-starter, who is agile and fast paced and not likely to get slowed down by process. You will be attracted to and inspired by the flatter structure and quicker decision making of a SME business. We need a super engaging and enthusiastic individual, with the ability to inspire and engage internal and external teams. You will be a strong communicator with the ability to influence and operate up to Board level
- Ability to deal with ambiguity and set direction
- Resilient and tough
- Strong results focus and bias for action –a doer not a thinker
Our recruitment process is being managed by our retained partner Dave Young at Parker Young. For more information about the role, please contact him on 07753168638 or dave@parkeryoungrecruitment.com. All third party CVs