The Business:

• Twinings are the No.1 brand in the Premium Tea Category (Speciality, Green, Fruit & Herbal) translating into an overall 15% share in the Tea category as a whole.
• The segments in which Twinings dominate continue to be the source of growth as the ‘Mainstream’ tea category continues to decline in an already saturated high penetration category.
• Across the Top 5 Grocers, Twinings are the lead Category advisors for Tea.

Sainsbury’s:

• Sainsbury’s is Twinings No.2 Grocery customer and has a number of years of strong growth.  Given the strong fit with the Sainsbury’s Shoppers and Twinings consumers there is a strong overtrade in Premium Tea segments which in turn places Twinings in the No.2  Tea brand position in Sainsbury’s (closely behind Unilever).
• This strong overtrade with Twinings consumers and Sainsbury’s shoppers opens up the opportunity to make strong connections between Twinings communication strategy and the translation of this into an in store commercial plan.  Sainsbury’s believe in the strength of the Twinings brand and the role it could play driving category more transformational category growth.

The Team:

Given the low level of hierarchy that operates in Twinings and given this role is a key stepping stone to the next Business Unit Head/Customer Director position this role provides real developmental exposure to the strategic thinking and support of Sales and Marketing Directors and General Manager.

Overall Purpose

Planning:

• Lead the development of robust, action orientated annual plans for Sainsbury’s that are aligned with the 5yr vision and Twinings annual plan: i.e.
  • Volume, revenue, spend and profit targets by brand / sub brand, phased.
  • Specific strategies and actions for Sainsbury’s that will deliver the overall plan, supported by appropriate KPI’s.
  • Identify tactics to deliver POP targets that will deliver the maximum business benefit to both Twinings and drive Sainsbury’s category performance.
  • Collaborate effectively and lead the plan with all relevant internal functions: Customer Marketing, Finance, and Customer Supply.
• Make the plan a day-in-day-out living document with continual review, revision and correction / gap analysis.

Key Accountabilities

•  Make Sainsbury’s plan a reality, target and track internal and customer financials versus the agreed goals, specifically
• Drive the implementation of the targeted POP and sales driver initiatives and targets.
• Ensure that all Sainsbury’s investment returns a positive ROI.
• Be accountable for the continual review and update of the financial forecast for Sainsbury’s and ensure complete transparency of performance and delivery against business forecasts.
• Seek insight in store to understand and provide insight on the compliance/execution of the plan as well as bringing back insight to the business.

Customer Engagement:

• Build and create strong personal and professional networks with Sainsbury’s at all relevant levels to drive deep and broad relationships that can be leveraged to gain commitment to the proposed plans.
• Leverage and champion internal Twinings support for the implementation of the Sainsbury’s engagement strategy, take the resource you need to build customer engagement.
• Lead the creation and agreement of Sainsbury’s Joint Business Plan.  Leverage month to month tracking to drive engagement into the plan.  Gain commitment from key Sainsbury’s decision makers to the account plan on an on-going basis.
• Understand precisely how Sainsbury’s works: performance; roles and responsibilities; processes; etc.
• Constantly strive to add value. Have better insight and direction into Sainsbury’s category development than the Sainsbury’s can develop for themselves, and have this recognised by them.
• Have greater understanding of sales, profit and margin levers for the Twinings business and for the category than the Sainsbury’s, and have this recognised by them.

Essential experience and education

• Experience of Top 4 Grocery at SNAM/NAM level, ready to move to Customer Director/Business Unit Head position in 2-3 years.  Prepared to play senior leadership and coach role within the wider Grocery team in supporting less experience team members in their own leadership journey through role modelling behaviours.
• Recent (within the last 2 years) Sainsbury’s experience is preferential especially considering the need for networks in Sainsbury’s and typical buyer ‘profile’: i.e. Likely ex consultant or accountant background, high potential, high Intellect, data driven decision maker.
• Good base of category skills and thinking, fully able to credibly translate category data into insight and action.
• Strong financial/numerical skills

University degree or equivalent

Dimensions e.g. Budget, no of reports

This role reports to Customer Director (Sainsbury’s, Waitrose & Ocado) and joined by  1 x dedicated Sainsbury’s & Waitrose Category Manager, 1 x Waitrose SNAM and 1 x National Account Exec