Our Client:
Our client is a leading regional food manufacturing group with a strong presence in Iraq and a diverse portfolio across multiple food categories.
As part of its continued growth, the company is looking for an experienced Ready Meals - Business Manager to lead and grow its portfolio across Frozen Foods & Vegetables, Meat & Protein Products, Ready-to-Eat Meals and Sauces.
This is an end-to-end business role with ownership of growth, profitability and overall development of the Ready Meals business.
Your Role:
- Own the Ready Meals business strategy and P&L, with responsibility for revenue, volume, margins and profitability.
- Drive growth across Frozen Foods & Vegetables, Meat & Protein Products, Ready-to-Eat Meals and Sauces.
- Identify consumer and market opportunities and translate them into new products, categories and revenue streams.
- Take a strong focus on Meat & Protein, looking across the full value chain from sourcing and processing to manufacturing, cold chain, distribution and route to market.
- Explore opportunities around local sourcing, meat processing, slaughterhouse partnerships and potential strategic investments.
- Review the existing portfolio and decide where to grow, innovate, improve or rationalize.
- Work closely with R&D and Manufacturing to develop and successfully commercialize new products.
- Strengthen the route to market for frozen and ready meals products and improve distribution and market penetration.
- Manage pricing, product mix and margins to deliver profitable and sustainable growth.
- Work closely with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Sales, Marketing, Trade Marketing and Finance to deliver the business plan.
- Lead and develop the Ready Meals team with clear commercial priorities and accountability.
Must-Have:
- Strong commercial and business leadership experience within the food industry, ideally across frozen foods, ready meals, meat and protein, sauces or related categories.
- Proven P&L or business-unit ownership, with a strong understanding of revenue, volume, margins and profitability.
- Clear track record of growing and scaling a food category or business.
- Strong understanding of sourcing, manufacturing, supply chain and route to market.
- Experience developing and commercializing new products based on consumer and market opportunities.
- Meat, poultry or processed protein experience is a strong advantage, particularly with an understanding of the full value chain from sourcing and processing through to commercialization.
- Exposure to meat processing, slaughterhouse operations, integrated protein businesses or strategic sourcing partnerships would be highly advantageous.
- Strong cross-functional leadership with the ability to work across commercial and operational teams.
- Iraq or similar emerging-market experience is preferred.
Next Steps:
Shortlisted candidates will be contacted within 5-7 working days for a more detailed discussion about the opportunity. Please note, due to the confidential nature of the search and high application volumes, we will only respond to shortlisted profiles.
