Communications Assistant - Food & Drink

Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK grocery retailer is seeking a Communications Assistant to support the food and drink press office and contribute to creative campaigns. The role involves drafting press releases, engaging with journalists, and building relationships with stakeholders. Candidates should have excellent communication skills and a keen interest in food and drink trends. This position offers a hybrid work model and various benefits including colleague discounts and performance-related bonuses.

Benefits

Colleague discount

Pension scheme

Performance-related bonus

Health cash plans

Employee assistance programme

Qualifications

• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Proactive and collaborative approach.
• Can-do attitude and organizational skills.

Responsibilities

• Support the food and drink press office.
• Contribute to creative and brand campaigns.
• Draft press releases and handle journalist inquiries.

Skills

Writing skills

Relationship building

Interest in food and drink trends

Social media knowledge

Job description

Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: London Store Support Centre and Home, London, EC1M 6HA
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Corporate Affairs
Closing date: 07 October 2025
Requisition ID: 400022947

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. This is where you’ll enjoy a broad range of projects, no matter what your level, because our Corporate Affairs team is non-hierarchical and truly plugged in to the rest of the business. Whether it’s internal, external or government relations, you’ll have the chance to collaborate with everyone from food waste to health, or general merchandising to Nectar, in order to support some amazing campaigns. You’ll help build trust around Sainsbury’s with customers, senior stakeholders, media and more. And if non-linear progression is what you’re after, you’ll find opportunities are all around.

Hybrid – London (Farringdon) and Home

Joining the Sainsbury\'s team as a Communications Assistant presents an exciting opportunity to be part of a fast-paced and dynamic environment, where you will play a crucial role in showcasing the company as the First Choice for Food and driving engagement with the loyalty programme, Nectar. With a focus on food and drink innovation, media relations, and influencer engagement, you will have the chance to work on creative campaigns, collaborate with various teams across the business, and contribute to shaping the narrative around Sainsbury\'s products and offerings. If you are passionate about food & drink, PR, and communications, this role offers a rewarding and stimulating environment to grow and make a real impact.

What you\'ll do

As the Communications Assistant at Sainsbury\'s, you will play a crucial role in supporting the food and drink press office, contributing to creative and brand campaigns that align with the company\'s strategic outcomes of being the First Choice for Food and ensuring everyone loves the loyalty programme, Nectar. You will work in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, staying attuned to consumer trends and competitor activities to identify media coverage opportunities, drafting press releases, handling journalist inquiries, tracking and sharing media coverage, collaborating with store colleagues and suppliers, and contributing to various PR initiatives and events aimed at promoting Sainsbury\'s food and drink products. Your role will involve building and managing relationships internally to gather information for PR activities, showcasing a keen interest in food and drink trends, and actively participating in upcoming PR and influencer plans to enhance the company\'s communication strategies.

Who you are

As a Communications Assistant at Sainsbury\'s, you are a dynamic and enthusiastic individual with a passion for food & drink and a keen interest in PR and communications. Your excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, enable you to effectively engage with internal teams, journalists, and influencers, while your proactive and collaborative approach allows you to build strong relationships and contribute to the success of food & drink campaigns. With a can-do attitude, organisational skills, and a knack for staying abreast of industry trends, you thrive in a fast-paced environment, driving projects forward and delivering impactful results that position Sainsbury\'s as a leader in the market.

• Proven writing, creative and editing skills with ability to contribute to creative content development
• Demonstrable experience in building and maintaining professional relationships across internal and external stakeholders.
• Evidenced interest in food, drink and broader lifestyle trends
• Demonstrable knowledge of and interest in social media platforms

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new — whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:

Starting off with colleague discount, you\'ll be able to save 10% on your shopping online and instore at Sainsbury\'s, Argos, TU and Habitat, and we regularly increase the discount to 15% at points during the year. We\'ve also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You\'ll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 5% of salary, depending on how we perform.

Your wellbeing is important to us too. You\'ll receive an annual holiday allowance and you can buy up to an additional week of holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, salary advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an employee assistance programme.

Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.

Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).