Trade Marketing Manager (UK)
We make plant-based steak in Slovenia. The Brits, it turns out, quite like it.
Here's the thing: we sell to UK retailers directly. No distributor, no safety net. So nobody else is going to make sure our product looks great on the shelf, has the right price tag next to it and ends up in the right basket. Getting listed is the champagne moment. Making it sell is the actual job. And in a category that's getting more crowded by the month, it's the job that matters most.
That's where you come in. You know that execution is the unglamorous heart of FMCG: the promo calendar, the display that actually fits, the quarter pallet, the leaflet deadline you cannot miss. You'd rather spend a morning in an aisle than in a slide deck. And beyond the shelf, you bring the brand to UK consumers too, through sampling, events, local PR and social. Expect about 70% of your time in store and with the trade, and 30% on consumer activation.
Fair warning: you'll be our only marketer on the ground in the UK. Some people find that terrifying. You find it rather appealing.
What will you do?
- Turn our UK listings into sell-through. You own activation; our sales team owns the accounts and sell-in.
- Build a launch plan for every new listing, ready before the product lands on shelf.
- Run the UK trade calendar: promotions, features and seasonal moments, timed around each retailer's lead times and range reviews.
- Plan promotions with clear uplift and ROI targets, and check honestly afterwards whether they worked.
- Deliver POS, displays and tastings that work in real life: room for the price label, the right pallet and tray formats, sensible quantities.
- Bring our brand campaigns to UK consumers and work with our brand and D2C teams on creative, local PR and social.
- Run sampling, tastings and events that get people to try us.
- Brief and manage field, shopper and print agencies, and check the results with your own store visits.
- Feed what you learn about our shoppers and consumers back to the brand and product teams.
- Report to the Head of Sales and measure yourself on rate of sale, promotion ROI, launches on time and UK brand awareness.
Nice to have
- Sales or account management experience, category management work with a retailer, plant-based or premium food, a challenger brand selling direct to retailers.
What do you need?
- 7+ years in trade, shopper or customer marketing at a UK FMCG brand, ideally food or drink.
- Hands-on experience with the big UK grocers: promotions, displays, POS and launches.
- You know the mechanics by heart: listing cycles, price announcement lead times, promotional funding, returns, shelf and pallet standards.
- You know category data and turn it into action. Spreadsheets don't scare you. Neither do buyers.
- Experience managing agencies.
- You've been the only marketer in the room before, and you liked it. You set your own priorities, spot problems in store or in the data before anyone asks, and fix them without waiting to be told.
- Respect for brand guidelines, and the creativity to make them work in a real aisle.
- A strong plus: experience bringing brand campaigns to consumers locally, through sampling, events, PR or social.
We offer
- The trust and autonomy to build our brand and retail presence in the UK, with room to grow into owning the full UK marketing mix.
- A team of creators who are passionate about food, science and art (and who will very much want to see your store-visit photos).
- Location: UK, remote, with regular store visits and some trips to our team in Domžale, Slovenia.
- Schedule: Flexible.
- Start: as soon as you can - the latest March 2027.
- Salary: Let's talk.
