Sugar & Sweeteners Category Head

pladis Foods Limited; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

pladis is a fast-growing global biscuits and confectionery company seeking a Sugar & Sweeteners Category Head. The role drives a 2–3 year forward sourcing strategy, coordinates with regional teams, and leads supplier relationships to ensure sustainable savings and innovation.

Based in Chiswick, the candidate will manage a complex global category, engage cross-functionally with R&D, Operations, Finance and Marketing, and deliver on productivity, sustainability, and cash flow goals while guiding

Qualifications

• Bachelor degree minimum.
• 5+ years experience in procurement.
• Proven success running a category at regional/global level.
• English is a must; proficiency in another language is desirable.
• Advanced Excel & PowerPoint skills.

Responsibilities

• Design a 2–3 year forward sourcing strategy aligned with the business.
• Implement procurement-driven processes and tools within the category.
• Build SRM with global/strategic suppliers and influence regional strategies.
• Lead regional procurement teams to implement global sourcing plans.
• Negotiate frame agreements and finalise contracts with global suppliers.

Skills

English proficiency

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Analytical skills

Education

Bachelor degree

Masters desirable

Tools

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

Want to help us bring happiness to the world? Want to join an ambitious and fast growing global biscuits and confectionery business investing heavily in iconic global brands, infrastructure and people? Then this is the place for you. As proud bakers and chocolatiers and custodians of iconic global brands, we don’t compromise on the quality of ingredients in our products or on the people we hire. We are looking for entrepreneurial spirits who share our passion for bringing happiness to our consumers and who embody our Winning Traits. To succeed at pladis you need to be purpose‑led, resilient and positive to succeed here because we expect pace and agility, we insist on collaboration and demand accountability. If that is your thing, then pladis offers global ambition, a clear Vision and roadmap for success, challenge, and unrivalled opportunities to learn and make an impact.

The Team:

The Procurement team is made of 110 professionals working across the world to create competitive advantage for pladis through mid‑term sourcing strategies and strong supplier relationships. Our 2025 Procurement vision aims at delivering more value for the business along 5 key business deliverables: Supply Continuity, Cost Out, Cash Flow optimization, Sustainability and Supplier Innovation. We work as a matrix organization, with Global Categories leveraging the pladis global size and Local Procurement ensuring a strong connection and proximity with our 5 regions (UK & Ireland, Western Europe & Emerging markets, Middle East – North Africa – India, Turkey – Eastern Europe – Central Asia, and North America).

The Role:

Within Global Categories, the Sugar & Sweeteners Category Head reports directly to the Raw Materials Categories Lead, who in turn reports into the CPO. They drive (in alignment with Regional Procurement teams) the Sugar & Sweeteners Category (200 M£ spend). The Category includes beet sugar, cane sugar and all other sweetening agents (glucose, fructose, aspartame, maltodextrin…).

Key responsibilities include:

• Designing, formalising & implementing a 2 to 3 years forward sourcing strategy, after ensuring full alignment with the business
• Implementing all Procurement‑driven processes & tools within his/her categories
• Building strong relationships across all pladis functions (R&D, Operations, Engineering, Finance, Marketing), influencing pladis strategy in relation with sugars & sweets (competitivity, innovation, sustainability) and working with all key stakeholders to accelerate project implementation
• Driving Procurement teams in regions to ensure a smooth and efficient implementation of global sourcing strategies, while promoting the sharing of best practices and leading benchmarks across regions
• Lead AOP (budgeting process) for commodity assumptions.
• Delivering top class results across all 5 strategic dimensions of our mission:
• A 3-year productivity roadmap to achieve sustainable savings of a minimum of 3.5% per year, through reformulation of our materials or negotiation with our suppliers
• A clear sustainability roadmap (jointly with R&D) to reach the goals set by pladis on its path to carbon neutrality, while creating differentiation in the market
• A clear innovation roadmap (jointly with R&D) to create extra value for consumers across our strategic innovation platforms
• A robust supply continuity plan to assess, anticipate and prevent any disruption to our supply chain
• A strong target to improve cash flow across our operations (payables, stocks of finished goods…)
• More specifically with regards to the Category, they will be responsible to:
• Map together with Regional Procurement our requirements for the next 3 years, in order to anticipate our needs as the market evolves. This includes looking at nutritionally‑better sources to reach the sweetening power required by consumers (needs analysis)
• Map the market to identify new suppliers in those strategic areas, able to challenge our incumbent suppliers (market analysis)
• Execute our Commodities cover strategy (mostly on raw sugar), with the support of the Procurement Head for Financial Hedging when done through financial instruments.
• Link with Procurement teams in Regions to ensure timely execution of our cover strategy when done through physical contracts.
• Share benchmarks and best practices across all regions
• Define jointly with Procurement in the Regions a Sourcing Strategy (productivity roadmap, innovation roadmap, sustainability roadmap, supplier strategy)
• Build strong SRM (Supplier Relationship Management) with global & strategic suppliers, to build long‑term relationship in order to leverage our size whenever it makes sense and get priority access to their sustainability / innovation programs. This includes setting up & monitoring a robust supplier evaluation program.
• Negotiate frame agreements with Global Suppliers, support negotiations in all regions and align supplier selection with Procurement in the Regions
• Finalize contracts with global suppliers, collecting all necessary requirements (technical, service level, expected KPIs) from the various stakeholders.
• Support Procurement teams in the Regions with the contract execution when significant breaches of service / quality are identified
• Identify improvement opportunities, develop should‑cost models, set up continuous improvement targets to drive savings & value Education, Qualifications and Experience:

Education, qualifications and experience:

• Bachelor degree minimum, Masters desirable
• Experience in Procurement (a min. of 5 years, with a proven success in running a Category at regional or global level, in a worldwide organization)
• Ability to deal with ambiguity within a complex and multicultural environment
• Proven ability to work with cross‑functional team, with a collaborative mindset.
• Natural leadership & influence skills
• Strong analytical skills
• Ability to be hands on operationally as well as building a long term strategic vision
• English is a must, proficiency in another language is desirable
• Previous work experience in matrix procurement organization
• Advanced Excel & Power Point skills
• Available to work in Chiswick 3 days a week / travel on request to factories & suppliers.

pladis is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to hiring a diverse workforce. All openings will be filled based on qualifications without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, age, religion or any other classification protected by law.

pladis is one of the world’s fastest growing snacking companies and home to much loved brands including McVitie’s, GODIVA and Ülker. pladis also owns regional brands Jacob’s, Go Ahead, Flipz, Turtles, BN, Verkade and many more products across sweet and savoury biscuits, wafer, cake and chocolate. Formed in 2016, pladis is the proud steward of over 300 years of family baking and confectionery experience. The expertise of our 16,000-strong global workforce spans 27 bakeries across 11 countries and is united by our purpose: to ‘bring happiness with every bite’. As a responsible business delivering the highest quality products and exceptional service, pladis’ products have the potential to reach more than four billion people across the world. For more information, please visit : www.pladisglobal.com