About Riverford

Every week, Riverford delivers organic food to around 85,000 homes and businesses across the UK. This takes loads of brilliant people, from growers to IT experts, and more besides!

We’re a friendly, forward-thinking bunch, and our three core values – Stronger Together, Do Things Well and Independence – run through everything we do. We celebrate diversity, valuing, supporting and developing the whole person as an equal opportunities’ employer.

In 2018, Riverford became employee owned. Working here makes you a ‘co-owner’, our way of saying ‘employee’. It’s not just a name – every co-owner can play a part in shaping Riverford.

We’re also proud to be a B Corp – a certification for ethical businesses who work not just for profit, but also to benefit people and the planet.

What you’ll be doing

The role will be to drive a consistent food stance through the business, translating it into an innovative product range, a reputation for being the ‘only’ place for (organic and seasonal) fruit and veg, and a customer base which is inspired and supported to put veg centre plate 

Reporting to the Marketing Director, you will define, build and champion a strong, differentiating food positioning with the ultimate aim of Riverford becoming a distinctive leader in Fresh Veg. We don’t just want to provide fresh produce, we want to help our customers move to more seasonal diets, show them how to cook from scratch and minimize food waste!

You will work across our experienced marketing, commercial and development teams to ensure our authority as a leading voice on plant-based eating, is relevant to our customer base, and enhances our commercial performance. 

Head of Food Responsibilities:

• Responsible for defining a distinct, inspiring and relevant food positioning and vision, drawing from external, customer, commercial and supplier insight.  Thereafter working closely with Commercial, Marketing and Procurement teams to deliver this Vision.
• Responsible, for identifying high potential and incremental NPD areas/categories to support this vision and positioning and working with the Commercial team to convert these into product briefs.
• Continuously supporting the commercial team to refresh and renovate the current product range around the positioning, to enhance customer experience and commercial performance.
• In partnership with Marketing empowering customers to use our curated range with confidence and clarity with content so that  customers can “Live life on the Veg”. 
• Accountable for the Riverford Field Kitchen restaurant and co-owner canteen at our Wash Farm site, realizing the full potential of these and other brand experiences.
• Build on current event programmes of customer events around the country, pop-up feasts, veg master classes and cooking demos

Skills & experience :

• Extensive experience in Food industry is essential, including accountability for restaurants or food catering.
• NPD experience, with focus on the fresh produce area, right from conception through to supplier selection, specifications and costings
• Ideally a bit of a veg nerd, with a passion for veg, deep knowledge of varieties, their culinary value, and “what’s next”
• Outward facing with finger on the pulse of food trends, able to tell a trend from a fad, and always looking for the next thing 

This is a new role and a great opportunity for a creative, innovative and inspiring person to join us and have an influence through the business. To deliver in this role, you will need to be able to balance innovation and excitement to a range with the commercial reality of what our customer will buy!

In addition to a competitive salary, Riverford also offer a wonderful benefits package including 33 days holiday pro rata (including bank holidays), annual profit share; 10% of all our profits are split equally between all co-owners, 25% off everything we sell  and heavily discounted organic breakfasts and lunches to name just a few!!