Beverage Product Innovation Manager

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The day-to-day activities

Brief summary of job profile: This position will be responsible for driving new product development initiatives from ideation to launch and beyond, to create a brand-relevant product pipeline of innovation. This will require collaborating with marketing team members, store operations and supply chain to understand marketing trends and roll-out best-selling new products. Furthermore, this individual must collaborate with cross-functional teams required to ensure the successful launch of new products. Key Accountabilities: 1. Product Innovation Planning
  • Support Senior Product Innovation Director to develop long-term product innovation goals and objectives.
  • Stay up to date with industry trends, consumer behaviours, and competitive landscape to revise/ update product development strategy.
  • Explore market trends to guide the innovation for new products, both permanent and limited time offers, as well as regional market menu items.
  • Partner with the consumer insights team to identify new product opportunities and consumer trends/preferences/needs and use this information as basis to deliver the most relevant products in a timely manner and within the target COGS
2. Product Development and Commercialization
  • Lead the development and execution of new product concepts, from ideation to commercialization, including product design, development, testing, and launching.
  • Develop and manage project timelines, budgets, and cross-functional teams (Marketing, Operations, and Supply Chain) to ensure seamless product development and launch processes.
3. Product Improvement
  • Analyse and track product performance, customer feedback, and market trends to identify opportunities for product enhancement and innovation.
  • Propose and execute product and ingredient improvements to improve quality, customer satisfaction and maintain the relevance of the brand
4. Others
  • Manage relationships with external suppliers, vendors, and partners to ensure high-quality products are delivered on time and within budget.
  • Coach and mentor a team of product innovation executives.
Key Performance Indicators:
  • New products released vs plan
  • Strike rates for new products
  • Costs & Margins
  • GVFM score for flagship & LTO launch
  • New/ improved product satisfaction rate
  • Unit per transaction (UPT)

Job requirements

Education/ Training Qualifications:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Business, Food Science, Engineering, Biology or related Food science or engineering field Master’s degree is preferred

Experience

  • 07+ years of experience in the food & beverage industry, with an emphasis on coffee, tea and bakery
  • Demonstrated ability to develop a product innovation strategy and drive the product development pipeline, with proven ability to move products from ideation to commercialization ·
  • Outstanding menu development skills, with relevant experience with developing coffee, tea, beverages, and food products
  • Demonstrated ability to manage at least 2 direct reports and guide them to deliver new products on a timely manner
  • 03+ years of experience in project management and demonstrate good working relationships with cross functional departments such as Operations, Marketing, Supply Chain, Legal and Finance.

Knowledge of:

  • Market trend scanning, insights generation
  • Coffee, Tea, Bakery research & development from product ideation, consumer testing, commercialization, and rollout
  • Purchasing, vendor and cost management
  • Store operations · Packaging design · Creative and concept development · Consumer Marketing
Skills (Ability to):
  • Excellent organization skills and ability to effectively manage multiple priorities in a rapidly changing environment.
  • Strong leadership, critical thinking, decision making skills
  • Excellent presentation & communication skills · Ability to build trust and influence broad range of stakeholders – internal, external
  • Results focused – ability to deliver in high pressure environment · Strong vendor management skills
  • Agile and able to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously
  • Strong Vietnamese & English language skills
Working hours:
  • As per business needs. Typically 8am-5pm Mon-Friday.

Other special requirements (if any):

  • Ability to work under pressure at times, with an enthusiastic attitude!