The Business
Greggs is the UK's leading bakery food-on-the-go retailer with a turnover of c£900m. The business employs 20,000 people and operates from nearly 1,800 stores and 10 manufacturing sites. Founded in Newcastle Upon Tyne over 75 years ago, the business now operates across the whole of the UK.
- Salary: Strong, senior management package
- Location: Preferably North East but flexible
The Role
The Head of Technical is a business-critical leadership role with a broad remit. This is a hugely exciting opportunity, leading food safety and quality across a vertically integrated business in a growing and dynamic market place.
Key responsibilities include:
- Maintaining the safety, quality and legality of food products produced or handled across supply chain and retail operations.
- Producing and maintaining technical policies and strategy and providing counsel from a technical perspective.
- Managing and developing the technical team to meet short and long-term needs.
- Driving continuous improvement in the food safety and management systems.
- Liaising across other functional teams and enforcement agencies.
- Acting as an ambassador for food science and technology issues both internally and externally to ensure practical application of new/amended regulation and new technology.
The Person
The successful candidate will need to have extensive people management experience coupled with strong, broad, technical knowledge and insight, gained from a significant period working in the food sector. They will be recognised as an industry figurehead with experience of working with trade accreditation bodies, technical working groups and NGOs. A determined and resilient character, with the ability to intelligently influence stakeholders from Main Board to front-line retail, they will recognise that they are offering a service to the business and will look to optimise this and build strong working relationships.
Highly effective communication skills are a prerequisite and the right person will be able to identify the important messages within the noise of a fast-paced, complex business. From this, they will be able to provide clear strategy, direction and advice.