Ella’s Kitchen was set up by Paul Lindley to promote healthy eating amongst babies and young children. We’re a highly entrepreneurial and values driven company which has achieved impressive growth to over £80m turnover, with a team of around 90 employees based at Ella’s Barn near Henley. Our baby and toddler food pouches can be found in key retailers across the UK as well across Scandinavia and BeNeLux, in a handful of other European and Middle Eastern markets and the Far East. We are a brand recognised for its high quality ingredients and ethical credentials which are visible throughout our supply chain and in our social and charity work. Ella’s is part of the Hain Celestial group and we are very proud to be an accredited B’Corps and included in the Sunday Times Best Companies top 100 list 5 years in a row!

Already having achieved rapid growth to date, Ella’s is about to embark on an exciting new phase of development, to bring out more ranges of products and reach a wider international audience. With an ambitious growth target, we are looking for a talented person to join the team.

You will be joining a team of people who meet personal and business challenges with hard work and a smile. They not only see things as they are and ask why - but see things that never were and ask why not.

At Ella’s Kitchen, we are guided by our values; they set the tone of our culture and we look out for newbies who will be a natural fit to our values and complement and contribute to our business.

Location:

Near Henley-on-Thames – you’ll be able to work flexibly between home and our lovely Barns

Reports to:

Head of Making Deals (Commercial Director)

Direct Reports:

Lead a team of 2 account managers and 1 exec

Contract:

Full time, Permanent

Purpose of role:

• Spearhead International (Around the World – ATW) strategy to double the size of business by 2030.

• Working with Head of Deals and your team, to develop + implement the long-term vision for ATW and corresponding strategy to deliver this growth.

• Ensure your team is set up for success by resourcing the growth accordingly and managing clear roles + responsibilities across the Barns.

• Lead your team to create a clear roadmap and annual market plans for Ella’s ATW, including an international P+L, aligned to the Ella’s business strategy.

• Lead your team to become experts in their markets to create imaginative, ambitious, motivating and commercially sound market plans, which engage the customer, help us achieve our mission and achieve our goals.

• Inspire, excite, motivate and nurture your team to ensure a high performing group, and support the Head of Deals and wider Deals team to aspire to the same.

• Be an exemplary strong voice of ATW Deals + therefore our distributors, within the Barns to influence activity to be aligned with market strategies. Lead your team to be ambassadors of ATW priorities.

• Develop strong strategic relationships with our international partners, aligned to our Ella’s Script (contact strategy)

Role activities / responsibilities:

1. Strategy + Leadership

• Working with Head of Deals, Understands how Mums + Dads shop (Category Management) + Runs Being Prepared (Strategy + Planning); create the Deals 2030 strategy and input the role the ATW Dealers play in this - making sure it’s in line with Ella’s business strategy to deliver brand, business, sales + profit objectives

• Set the direction via ATW strategy and 1 – 3-year market plans, making sure they’re in line with our internal targets, 2030 business strategy.

• Lead cross-functional team of Barners to ensure joined-up success in any launch into new countries or significant change in route-to-market structure. Motivate, inspire + influence cross functionally to help others perform at their best.

• Lead the wider ATW team (e.g., incl Friends (Marketing)) to create a tight-knit, collaborative + aligned team – ensure deals team recognise the important of brand resonance and advocacy in their markets.

• Work collaboratively across the Barns to ensure the Deals’ plans align with other teams and that the Deals team have the right support to achieve our strategy (e.g., NPD / marketing campaigns, solid supply etc.)

2. Commercial delivery

• Lead the ATW P+L to ensure full understanding + ownership of your team on value chains by market and the impact of these on e.g., NPD, route to market + commercial delivery.

• Deliver NSV, TI (trade investment), Contribution and Share targets

• Manage our weekly, monthly and FY sales call projections in line with our S+OP process

• Build, review and share an 18-month number projection for ATW by country

• Support the team to deliver QF’s and Budget; review by country, segment, challenge and provide total roll up view to ensure we are confident we can deliver it

• Support the team to deliver forecast accuracy targets, making sure that we’re giving the best view of the future at the right time

• Train and coach your team to deliver JBP’s that stretch and engage our distributors and excite our consumers to deliver Ella’s business objectives

• Be pro-active in JBP planning to ensure we are well prepared + are collaborating well with Sums (Finance) + Friends (Marketing). Ensure all proposals are watertight, commercially sensible, in-line with distributor strategies, have longevity and ultimately live Ella’s values (especially Thinking Differently + Business Minded)

• Be the ATW team expert when it comes to all things legal, from competition law to fair and motivating legal contracts with our partners

• Work with Runs Be Prepared to agree any appropriate/required/budgeted CPI’s. Help your team implement these in full, at the agreed time with customers and ensure all relevant parties are kept informed

• Work with Understands How Mums + Dads Shop (Category) to deliver timely category insight that helps us achieve our targets and ensure the insight is being fed into conversations with retailers to ensure we’re getting the space we deserve and category sales are being optimised

3. Country Leadership

• Develop and implement Ella’s Script to ensure resource across the Barns is directed to the right priorities.

• Aligned with Ella’s Script, build appropriate relationships with our ATW distributors; gain a real understanding of their strategies + goals to create mutually beneficial plans.

• Aligned with the strategy, assess opportunities for new revenue streams and prioritise and implement accordingly.

• Work closely with ATW Friends to lead on alignment across activity plans + priorities.

• Live + breath our Purpose and the Good Stuff We Do (Sustainability) to ensure we feed them into market plans where appropriate and inspire our partners.

4. People:

• Lead, motivate and inspire ATW Dealers; be compassionate and empathetic to balance wellbeing + personal development with the needs of the business.

• Working with Head of Deals and Deals Runs; contribute to the holistic Deals team strategy and create the ATW team strategy. Implement with the team and lead by example for the ATW Dealers.

• Pro-actively manage team workload: anticipate + allocate the necessary resource required.

• Work collaboratively to develop everyone in your team; making sure each team member has a clear ‘Grow Me’ plan and is regularly working towards achieving these goals

• Proactively lead priorities to manage workload effectively, whilst clearly communicating with key stakeholders internally + externally

• Lead by example; by knowing your stuff – internal goings on, numbers, our markets and coach your Dealers (NAMs) to do the same

You will need to:

• Embrace, embody and exude all that is special and unique about Ella’s

• Be a people manager, with experience of leading and developing a growing team

• Great Thinking Differently + Business Minded skills to create, lead + implement a strategy

• Have solid experience of Account Management + excellent commercial skills

• Experience of launching a brand into new countries and expanding Internationally

• Have experience of developing, managing and leading Joint Business Plans (JBPs)

• Have awesome relationship building + leadership skills, knowing how to get the best out of others to achieve the plan

• Be a brilliant communicator + networker

• Be a proactive thinker and able to make the time to think about what we’re doing

• Be able to thrive in an entrepreneurial and exciting environment

• Be able to prioritise according to business needs

• Have the ability to plan and prioritise both yours and the team’s workloads and have great time management skills

• Have great influencing skills (internally and externally)

• Be able to think creatively and entrepreneurially, switch on your ‘challenger brand thinking’ when needed

• Have a results-focused mind-set with the ability to “never never give up” when it comes to finding solutions

• Demonstrate your ability (and willingness) to live and breathe our values: We Want to Win, We’re Business Minded, We’re Childlike, We Think Differently, We’re Good to Each Other

• Be passionate (and help others to be) about what Ella’s stands for – improving children’s lives through healthy relationships with food.

And What You’ll Get In Return:

• Bucket loads of training and development, supporting your career pathway

• Competitive salary

• Discretionary bonus scheme

• A Box of Treats, including private medical, dental, pension, life assurance, 25 days holiday and the ability to buy more, high street discounts, amazing wellbeing events, Give It A Go days… to name but a few!

• A really awesome place to come to work … our beautiful Barns in the Oxfordshire countryside, but the flexibility to achieve a good work/life blend