Packaging Development Manager

Located in the heart of Piccadilly in our beautiful flagship store. This central London location, offers so much to explore including restaurants, bars, cultural sites, shopping and more, and only a short walk from the Green Park Tube Station and plenty of bus stops.

Role Purpose:

This role will be responsible for leading Fortnum and Mason’s packaging product development across both stock and non-stock packaging (GNFR packaging) utilised across all the channels and operations of our business.

Taking the lead from the Product & Packaging Design team and working alongside Technical and Sustainability, Buying and Procurement teams this role will be pivotal in the product development and enhancement of Fortnum’s incredible packaging offer (including format and substrate). Developing solutions that balance, creativity, customer, brand, environmental impact, quality, compliance and efficiency will be critical to the success of this role.

Packaging is at the heart of the Fortnum’s brand and the impact our packaging has on the world is one of our priority focus areas. We are embarking on a number of initiatives to redevelop our packaging solutions to reduce consumption, explore alternative materials and to drive reuse. It will be therefore essential for this role to take a championing position in this space, leading sustainable packaging development and ensuring F&M remain aligned to the ever changing global regulation/compliance landscape.

Key Accountabilities:

• Creation of the Fortnums packaging development processes, standards and operating model
• Supporting the creation and prioritisation of the packaging development roadmap for our key packaging initiatives
• End to end management of the development of our key packaging initiatives
• Developing packaging solutions that drive towards Fortnums Future Matters Goals and Sustainability polices
• Ownership of the GNFR packaging testing/compliance/sign off process
• Management of the packaging key initiatives product development budget
• Developing and managing our packaging supplier landscape, ensuring we have the capabilities & breadth of supply base we need for product development
• Ensuring alignment with the Buying and Design teams and all associated teams to ensure packaging development needs are captured and solutions developed in time and to the standards required (with a primary focus on F&M’s key packaging initiatives)
• Supporting Fortnums exploration of innovative packaging materials, techniques and solution developments
• Coordination with our compliance partners and internal teams to ensure we capture the appropriate data and manage our supply base to ensure compliance to all packaging regulatory requirements
• Management and oversight of all packaging compliance payments (PRN’s, etc.)
• Ability to be able understand, interpret and implement new packaging legislation.
• Provide expert advise to International wholesale team for packaging enquiries
• Create required GNFRS packaging Q&As (External press and customer services)

We expect the successful candidate to have the following skills and experience:

• Proven packaging development experience, with an emphasis on the development of food specific packaging, utilising sustainable substrates (FG + GNFR packaging)
• Demonstrable passion and creativity for packaging format design and development
• Clear understanding of the needs of luxury retail consumers
• Breadth of experience in working collaboratively within the product development process
• Strong supplier management and development capabilities
• Demonstratable experience and passion for developing sustainable packaging solutions
• Strong awareness of global packaging regulatory and compliance requirements
• Sustainable material expertise
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills due to the high level of interactions with key departments, suppliers, stakeholders
• Proven strength as a leader, developing teams, inspiring those around them and demonstrating a passion for delivering sustainable customer value
• 5 years experience in food packaging development either in retail or hospitality
• Fresh food packaging experience preferred but not essential

In return we offer the following fabulous benefits:

• A competitive salary
• Annual discretionary bonus
• A generous store and restaurant discount
• A subsidised staff restaurant which uses Fortnum’s ingredients
• 25 days paid holiday (plus bank holidays) a year and an extra day off for your birthday
• Excellent pension scheme
• Invitation to our annual staff party
• And because we value your service with us, we give you additional annual leave and incredible gifts once you’ve been with us for 5 years

At Fortnum & Mason we've been innovating for more than 300 years and as part of our mission to deliver a sense of pleasure for the centuries to come. We have grown to be a digitally focused and multi-channel company with the excitement of expanding our family to include those willing to grow with us.

Those who can consistently demonstrate individual initiative within a collaborative team framework, thrive at Fortnum & Mason. If this sounds like you, and you’re ready for the next step in your career, we welcome your application!