Job Description

ROLE CONTEXT:

• Twinings is circa 9% share of the $1.9bn ‘tea market’ in the USA
• The opportunity for the brand to grow is significant and globally the USA and Canada are seen as the key invest to grow markets
• Our mission is to double the size of the business in the next 3 years (and have the support of our Global CEO and CFO to financially back us with and invest to grow strategy)
• We are expanding our category lens beyond ‘tea’ and our heartland of ‘specialty black’ into the world of ‘wellbeing drinks’
• As a brand we don’t really stand for much beyond ‘quality’ and Englishness
• We have just completed a phase of work redefining (so some may say ‘defining’) our brand positioning and purpose and validated that as a brand we have great ability to stretch and a clear white space for us to occupy as a ‘optimistic, vibrant wellbeing drinks brand’
  • ‘Live More, Feel Good, Enjoy Life’
• We have just completed our 5-year strategy and identified that connections and innovation are two of the 3 key outperformance areas we need to focus on to win
• In light of the above we have also just expanded the marketing team (bringing 4 new team members in – 3 full time perm, 1 contract)

WHAT WE NEED:

• A great senior marketing talent who is ready to join a marketing led business and lead from the front
• An inspiring leader who creates a vision and galvanises a cross functional group and their own marketing team to achieve results beyond expectations
• High Ambition: Sets themselves and the people around them with high expectations and works hard to support, coach, and hold those around to account
• Strategic thinker who loves to be involved: We are a small agile team which requires all of our team to comfortably oscillate between big picture strategy and getting in to support and ‘get their hands dirty’
• Commercially Grounded: Sees the big picture and the relevant plans yet understands the commercial leavers and applies the right rigor to commercially validate the strategy and the tactics

KEY TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES/EXPERIENCE:

MARKETING STRATEGY & PLANNING

• Experience establishing and owning the strategic agenda for the brand. Making conscious choices around ‘where to play’ and ‘how to win’
• Seeing the bigger picture and working through what are the key activities and levers to pull to unlock it

BRAND BUILDING

• Proven evidence of building a brand. Embedding a new positioning and new creative

INNOVATION

• Experience and understanding of the innovation process. From idea through to executional excellence in commercialisation

COLLABORATIVE

• Understands what it is like to work with multiple stakeholders and open for different points of view

ROLE RESPONSIBILITY:

REGION

• USA
• Canada

TEAM

• 6

KEY INTERACTIONS/SUPPORT

• Leadership Team
• Global Marketing Leaders
• Global innovation and development teams
• Global Marketing Excellence team
• Global CEO
• External Agencies

A&P

• 11m

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS:

• High Learning Agility = thrive in an ambiguous environment
• Growth Mindset = Open minded, resilient, curious
• Accountable = wants to own and lead and excited by the challenge to create something
• Driven = Positive energy and proactively wanting to achieve

SCOPE:

• Leading the whole marketing team and strategy and planning (in a decentralized environment with full accountability for all elements of the marketing mix)
• Covers both USA and Canada
• Work closely with key international stakeholders and counterparts (Australia, UK, France, Italy)
• Work closely with the central NPD and R&D teams as well as central Marketing Excellence support teams

ADDITIONAL ROLE SPECIFICS:

• Experience/comfort working in small, agile, low process environment
• Experience and thrive in an environment and role where you have full accountability i.e. no central resource to ‘tell’ or ‘advise’ what to do or what process to run
• Enjoys being stretched strategically as well as involved in the detail to deliver plans and initiatives

BUSINESS CONTEXT:

Since 1706, Twinings has been at the forefront of developing wellbeing drinks – blending and innovating; improving the design and the packaging; and introducing new products and new ways of doing business.

Consumers in more than 100 countries enjoy Twinings products. From the popular English Breakfast and Earl Grey to a host of new innovative offers such as Cold Water Infuse and Superblends that are delighting the taste buds of a new generation.  

The acquisition of Twinings by Associated British Foods in 1964 paved the way for further expansion of this well-loved British brand.  To cater for the expanding market, a tea factory was built in Andover, England (which is where our global company head office is).  In line with the growing popularity of the brand across the globe, an additional plant in Poland was built in 2009

In 1980, Twinings established a wholly owned subsidiary in the U.S., and then in 2004, the company began to build a small team in Canada to pursue additional growth.  The company changed its name to Twinings North America, Inc. (also known as “TNA”) in 2005

Over the past several years, the Twinings brand has gained popularity in both the U.S., Canada and Mexico.  Sales growth has driven Twinings to be the 4th largest brand in the U.S., up from #7 in 2004.  In Canada, Twinings has also grown to become the nation’s 2nd largest tea brand (rising from #5 in 2004).

On a cumulative basis since 2006 (Twinings’ 300th anniversary), Twinings North America has been the fastest-growing tea company in North America –TNA is part of TwiningsOvo, an international beverages company with over $1bn in sales.

TwiningsOvo is part of Associated British Foods, a diversified international food, ingredients, and retail group with sales of over $20 billion in over 100 countries.