Role purpose:
The Sustainability & Compliance Manager owns product-level compliance, safety, sustainability and claims governance across the Exclusive Brands (EB) portfolio. The role ensures all EB products are safe, compliant and fully defensible, while driving sustainability and compliance as commercial enablers of growth, differentiation and market leadership. Unlike broader Bunzl sustainability activity, this role is focused specifically on product-level regulation, evidence and innovation, ensuring what we sell is accurate, compliant and competitive in the market.
- Protects Bunzl from regulatory, quality and reputational risk
- Ensures all product claims are aligned, accurate, controlled and evidence-backed
- Drives sustainability as a product-level growth lever and differentiator
- Supports development of market-leading EB product ranges
- Enables EB to compete credibly in sustainability-led tenders and customer decisions.
Key responsibilities
1. Regulatory compliance & product safety (technical ownership)
- Own regulatory governance and product safety for consistent application across all EB products
- Approve all regulatory documentation (SDS, TDS, CLP/UK/EU labelling, hazard statements and usage instructions)
- Ensure full compliance with CLP regulations for hazardous products, including classification, labelling and packaging requirements
- Manage product registration requirements (e.g. OPSS for cosmetics, biocide and chemical frameworks, Ireland HSE requirements)
- Validate product safety, efficacy and technical performance claims
- Own product recall processes, communication and incident response
- Engage with regulatory authorities and external bodies where required (UK & Ireland)
- Ensure compliance with evolving green claims legislation
2. Claims governance & evidence control
- Own the integrity, control and commercial use of all product claims
- Approve all claims across labels, packs and central sales tools
- Maintain a central, audit-ready evidence library (EN tests, certifications, sustainability data, carbon/LCA data)
- Ensure claims are not only compliant, but clear, differentiated and usable in customer conversations
- Minimise regulatory and greenwashing risk through strong adherence to the UK Green Claims Code and EU Green Claims Directive
3. Sustainability (product-level ownership)
- Advise Exclusive Brand Managers on product-level sustainability to support development of differentiated, market-leading EB products
- Validate sustainability claims (recycled content, carbon/LCA data, certifications, social value)
- Ensure alignment between product specification, sourcing and sustainability messaging
- Build customer- and tender-ready sustainability evidence packs
- Co-own product-level sustainability with Brand Managers and Purchasing Category teams
- Identify and prioritise sustainability innovation opportunities (materials, packaging, formats, formulations)
- Translate Bunzl ESG frameworks into practical product execution and innovation pipelines
4. Product assurance & specification control
- Ensure supplied products match approved specifications
- Support quality assurance across key EB product categories
- Work with suppliers to improve product integrity and consistency
5. Sustainability-led commercial growth
- Track regulatory, sustainability and certification trends across cleaning & hygiene markets
- Drive sustainability and compliance as core enablers of EB growth and competitive advantage
- Identify categories where sustainability and compliance can drive switching, growth and margin improvement
- Define product-level value propositions linking sustainability, performance and cost-in-use
- Support Brand Managers in building sustainability-led propositions for key sectors
6. Supplier & cross-functional alignment
- Ensure compliance and sustainability are embedded across the product lifecycle
- Work with Purchasing to embed compliance and quality requirements in supplier agreements
- Align with Sustainability, Compliance and Legal functions
- Partner with Brand Managers during product development and changes
- Engage with external bodies (regulators, certification organisations, industry forums)
- Support Product Data/PIM team to ensure documentation is complete and accessible
- Work with suppliers and partners to raise sustainability across EB ranges within 4 key areas: product, packaging, producer or production
Key interfaces:
- EB Brand Managers
- Bunzl UK&I Sustainability and Compliance teams
- Bunzl UK&I Purchasing Directors & Category Leads
- Technical Support & Mobilisation teams
- GTM & Sales Enablement Manager
- Suppliers, certification bodies and regulatory authorities
What success looks like:
- All EB products are fully compliant with relevant regulations (CLP, OPSS, etc.) and consistently applied
- Suppliers are aligned, controlled and meeting EB compliance and quality standards
- Sustainability is a clear competitive advantage at product level, not just a claim
- EB product ranges evolve to become market-leading in sustainability and compliance
- Sales teams have strong, approved evidence to win tenders and convert customers
- EB wins business through credible, differentiated and defensible propositions
- Regulatory risks, quality issues and recall events are proactively managed
Why this role matters in Bunzl
- Protects Bunzl from regulatory, product safety and reputational risk
- Ensures EB products are credible, compliant and trusted
- Drives sustainability-led product innovation and differentiation
- Strengthens EB’s ability to win tenders and convert volume from branded suppliers
- Provides a clear, central authority for compliance and product-level sustainability
- Enables EB to become market-leading, not just another brand option
Pay: £40,000.00-£60,000.00 per year
Application question(s):
- Please summarise your experience managing product compliance, regulatory requirements or product safety within a manufacturing, FMCG or distribution environment.
- Describe your experience validating sustainability or product claims and ensuring supporting evidence meets regulatory requirements.
Work Location: In person
