Do you want to be part of a team driving growth, which has been described as ‘a true custodian of amazing retail brands of tomorrow’? If you love food & drink, working with fast-growing challenger brands and building collaborative commercial relationships with Trading teams in a Retail environment, then this could be the role for you.

The Future Brands team spearheads the search for emerging food and non-food grocery brands and brings them into Sainsbury’s on an exclusive basis. This really plays into the heart of the ‘distinctiveness’ agenda and is at the forefront of Sainsbury’s becoming the destination for customers to experience and buy into some of the most exciting brands in the market. The team also provides a fantastic platform for brands to accelerate growth and really scale their businesses in a meaningful way to truly establish themselves as brands of tomorrow.

This role provides the opportunity to join the Grow side of the team. You’ll be responsible for managing the growth opportunities for a subset of brands within the portfolio. You’ll act as the key interface for those brands with their respective Categories and will work closely Buyers to build growth plans and review ongoing performance. You’ll also work closely with other stakeholders across the business to gain support for your brands – teams like marketing, PR, formats, secondary space, Nectar 360, Groceries Online, as well as external agencies. The team continually assesses opportunities to optimise the framework of support that we provide our brands and there will be opportunities to get involved in central projects to implement these.

More about the role:

• On-boarding of new brands into the portfolio by setting objectives and financial targets
• Establishing a launch plan and key activations to support their growth in their first 12 months of the programme
• Providing insight for the brand into their performance and identifying opportunities to improve and drive greater growth
• Management of contractual changes to exclusivity as and when these become relevant
• Constantly evaluating additional opportunities to drive growth in a way that makes sense both for the customer and commercially for Sainsbury’s. Influencing relevant stakeholders to deliver these opportunities
• Clear understanding of how your portfolio of brands is contributing to the commercial delivery of the total Future Brands portfolio and where the opportunities and risks lie against that delivery.
• Ability to provide guidance to brands on how best they should be activating and marketing their products in Sainsbury’s to ensure they are playing their part in driving growth.

More about you:

• Commercial acumen and understanding of P&L delivery, budget setting and financial analysis
• Analytical thinking and sound judgment to be able to determine which growth opportunities will drive the greatest commercial return and prioritize accordingly
• Customer-centric thinking and an understanding of what specific customer needs our Future Brands are meeting
• A clear understanding of key Trading Category metrics and the role that Future Brands plays in delivering these
• Inherent clarity of brand and marketing thought and the ability to anticipate how customers will respond to a brand proposition
• An understanding of the suite of activation tools available for the future brands, how and when to deploy them to maximize sales through owned, earned, and paid for channels (and experience working on startup or challenger brands would be a bonus)
• Leading influencing and relationship management skills

As well as lots of on-the-job training and endless opportunities, you’ll get:

• Colleague discount across our multi-brands – Sainsbury’s, Argos, and Habitat
• Holiday allowance
• Bonus scheme
• Pension plan
• Special offers on gym memberships, restaurants, holidays, retail vouchers, and more

Work-life balance is important to us, so we offer our colleagues as much flexibility as possible in line with the needs of their role. We trust them to decide how, where and when they work, combining remote and collaborative working with a flexible approach to hours, giving them plenty of time and space for life outside of work whilst delivering against our business goals.

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