Head of Retail

Champion the scale-up of a category-defining pet food brand, building strategic retail alliances and shaping the future of the market.

Changing the world of pet food for good

We’re Tails.com, a dog food subscription company with a big difference. We create truly tailored food for each and every dog we serve. We start by asking people a few simple questions about their dog. Then we use that information to create their dog’s unique Tails.com recipe – so their dog gets exactly the nutrition they need, in the taste they love, delivered to their door every month. It’s clever stuff.

We’ve got bold plans. Having created an entirely new category in pet food, we’re now scaling fast – backed by Purina, one of the world’s largest pet food companies. You’ll join a bunch of smart people working towards the same goals – and a bunch of smart-ish dogs, all working on their own thing.

Together, we’ll change the world of pet food for good.

The retail team looks after our Inner Vitality brand we sell outside of our DTC proposition. We are currently listed in Sainsburys, Ocado, Morrisons, Waitrose, Wholesale, Amazon and across more stores across the UK. We look after everything from delivering our products to the retailers to delivering exciting marketing campaigns in stores.

Build our brand

We’re building a brand, fast. We set ambitious goals. We challenge and support each other in equal measure. At the pace we’re moving, we prefer to test ideas and learn quickly rather than spend months building a business case. That means we celebrate when things go right, and we learn when things go wrong.

The role

The role will work closely with the LT to shape the company’s retail strategy. Alongside building, leading and scaling a dedicated retail team as the business grows.

You will be responsible for:

• Lead and develop our retail team (across direct and indirect reports), evolving the structure and capability as the business scales
• Build and strengthen partnerships with key retail customers at a senior level to drive sales growth and expand distribution
• Develop and deliver joint business plans with key retailers to drive sustainable omni-channel growth
• Track and drive key commercial metrics including sales, profit, market share, distribution, pricing and in-store execution
• Self driven mentality to Identify new business opportunities and accelerate brand penetration
• Act as the senior retail leader, representing the function at a strategic level while driving alignment and influencing cross-functional teams to deliver against our growth ambitions.

The skills you’ll bring:

• Proven experience in FMCG within a senior retail-facing environment, with a strong understanding of omnichannel dynamics.
• Strategic thinking with the ability to dive into detail while defining and driving a clear, strategic vision for Retail
• The ability to anticipate customer needs and have a proactive mindset
• Demonstrate leadership capability, with the confidence to drive performance and lead cross-functional initiatives internally and externally.
• Previous experience in launching new products into Retail and pitching new NPD to new and existing retailers.
• Line Management experience

What's in it for you?

• Competitive salary, reviewed annually
• Annual bonus, based on company performance
• Flexible core hours, giving you true work life balance
• Hybrid role to ensure this role works for you
• 25 days of holiday (excluding bank holidays) which increases over time to a max of 27 days
• 9/10 day working week to enhance your wellbeing without a reduction in pay and leave allowance
• Optional 5 days unpaid leave and 1 paid volunteer day each year
• When you need a change of scenery, you can work from abroad 2 weeks every 6 months
• Health insurance for you, paid by Tails.com
• Extended maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoption pay. 6 months at 70% pay
• Flexible paid care leave to support immediate dependants, people close to you and pets
• In house L&D team, with access to year round courses to help drive your development
• 50% discount on all Tails.com
• Discounted gym membership

What’s next?

If this sounds like it matches your experience and what you’d love to do, we can’t wait to hear from you! If you’re unsure whether you fit our criteria exactly, please get in touch anyway. And because we believe that diverse teams perform better, we’d especially love to hear from you if you’re from an under-represented demographic.

Our Commitment

We’re proud to be an active equal opportunity employer. We want to give everyone a fair chance to join us in changing the world of pet food for good. We do this by conducting a structured recruitment process for all candidates, as well as actively promoting our roles to communities that are under-represented at Tails.com.

During your interview process you’ll meet some of our team with varying levels of responsibility and experience. We want to give every candidate a fair interview process and if you need any reasonable adjustments made, please let us know.

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