To create and execute the commercial plan for within Casual Dining & Bars, Coffee & Bakery, Retail, with responsibility for Ireland and Northern Ireland to deliver EBITDA growth from like-for-like sales and gross margin improvement activity.
The role is primarily focused on Ireland as a key strategic market, requiring close collaboration with operational teams and stakeholders to drive performance in these high-volume travel environments.
The role holder will be expected to use a variety of levers to drive like-for-like sales growth, such as range improvement, optimisation of price and promotion, upselling and maximisation of the use of space, and will drive category performance e.g. hot drinks, as well as the performance of the brand or brands.
He or she will use a range of tools and approaches to achieve gross margin improvement: working with stakeholders to identify and take advantage of supplier income opportunities; drawing upon the expertise of the culinary team to simplify and standardise recipes or develop new ones; and finding ways to reduce the impact that commercial activity has on waste and labour.
This role requires a rigorous and thorough commercial planning process and all commercial activity must be margin additive, hence this role will present regularly to the UK and Global CEOs and other senior stakeholders, and plans must stand up to scrutiny, demonstrating that due rigour has been applied.
Success in this role is highly dependent on an effective relationship with the operational teams so that commercial initiatives must be designed with a good understanding of operational processes (including procurement and supply chain) and the impact on front line activity, and in order to support the teams on compliance.
The Commercial Manager may also need to manage external stakeholders in order to ensure that SSP achieves its commercial outcomes whilst satisfying the requirements of the client and brand partners that we work with.
