Commercial Brand Manager - Franchise

About the Role

To create and execute the commercial plan for a portfolio of Franchise brands; such as LEON and Breakfast Club, to deliver profitable sales growth. 

Building and managing brand partner relationships forms an integral part of this role; working collaboratively to build and deliver a joint business plan, and utilising effective communication, influencing and negotiation to deliver value-adding initiatives whilst satisfying brand requirements. 

The candidate will be expected to use a variety of levers to drive profitable sales growth; keeping the customer at the core of everything we do. Levers such as range improvement, optimisation of price and promotion, upselling and maximisation of the use of space will be used to drive category performance, as well as the performance of the brand or brands.  

The candidate will also strive to improve gross margin: 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 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.  

What you'll be doing:

The commercial performance of the brand or a small portfolio of brands and new openings (LFL sales and gross profit) – deliver stretch EBITDA target 

• Commercial plan – support the Head of Commercial to create the commercial plan for each of the specified brand or brands 
• Joint business plan – work collaboratively with brand partners to deliver activities which are mutually beneficial for both parties 
• Analytics – ensure that every initiative is modelled on a product by product / unit by unit basis and forecast outcomes.  Test and learn based on the commercial results 
• Sign off - submit proposed sales and gross margin improvement activities to weekly trade /  monthly commercial forum meetings for approval (background, financial value and suggested next steps)  
• Implementation – once activity is signed off, total accountability for the successful implementation through operational teams 
• Review - report results at weekly trade and monthly commercial forum meetings.  Assess whether forecast has been achieved and EBITDA can be banked.  Course correct where necessary 
• Roll out – if successful, roll out and look for optimisation opportunities either in other brands or in other product categories where the same principles can  be applied 
• New openings – manage the commercial set up for new openings including range, pricing, POS. Deliver action plans to drive sales and profit if business cases are not delivering to target 
• Monitor competitor and brand partner activity 
• Spend time in the field– observing and supporting implementation in operational units 
• Effective management of Commercial Executives who implement the commercial plan where required. 
• Proactively looks for ways to optimise results and stay competitive with our competitors 

Key working relationships:

External:  

• Brand partners 
• Clients i.e. landlords of locations where SSP units reside  
• Suppliers 

Internal: 

• Wider UK Commercial team (Commercial Analytics, Trade Marketing, other Heads of Commercial who look after different portfolios of brands) 
• Marketing team (NPD/culinary, creative and design services, innovation) 
• Operations teams 
• Finance 
• Property 
• Purchasing 

To be successful in this role you will need:

Essential:

• Experience of using price, range, display and space, upselling, margin and category optimisation to deliver commercial results 
• Experience of delivering profit targets preferred, but experience of working in a sales environment also desirable 
• Must be able to drive decision-making through analysis and based on evidence, rather than intuition 
• Experience of drawing out business insights from analysis and presenting findings and recommendations persuasively 
• Must be able to develop innovative ideas to drive top and bottom line, testing, learning and refining and then operationalizing them 
• Experience of managing and influencing senior stakeholders 
• Experience of managing client/brand relationships 
• Excellent knowledge of external trends in the food and beverage and/or grocery industry (depending on brands allocated) 
• Good understanding of the impact of external factors on growth, including competition and seasonality 
• Good understanding of the operational reality in units i.e. a good understanding of waste management and minimisation, labour planning and optimisation, equipment, space and layout etc. 
• Retail experience preferential 

Desirable:

• Analytical and commercial 
• Exceptional attention to detail 
• Data-driven 

Why Join us

• Employee Discounts across our brands (over 400 locations)
• Friends and Family Discount App
• Award-winning training, apprenticeships and developmentprogrammes
• Health & Wellbeing support
• Hybrid working model with flexibility for work–life balance
• Inclusive and diverse workplace with employee networks and communities

Ready to start the best part of your journey?

Join us at SSP and play a key role in shaping the financial performance of our Rail Gourmet business — where your insight, collaboration, and ownership will help drive our success across the UKand beyond.

At SSP, we value diversity and are committed to building a team that reflects a range of backgrounds, skills and perspectives.

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