Marketing Manager - Cooking Aids UKI

Role

Title:

Marketing Manager, Cooking Aids UKI

Location: Kingston

ABOUT UNILEVER FOODS

Food is hot! What we eat, how we cook and how we are inspired to eat is changing rapidly. Foods Europe is a critical growth engine within Unilever’s Foods Business Group. As a Business Unit we have high ambitions for our 6 BG led markets where we believe in empowering the markets and creating the right ammunition to win the hearts and the minds of our consumers and customers.

At the heart of Foods Europe is our bold mission to be Food Lovers and Growth Hunters. Foods UKI is a sizeable business, the 5th largest market for Foods globally. Across the world there are 25 top priority cells in Foods, and the UK has 3 of them:
Condiments, Mini Meals and Cooking Aids. The UKI business has an accretive margin and holds either the #1 or #2 share position in our category verticals (Mini Meals #1, Condiments #2, Cooking Aids #2). Our global power brands, Hellmann’s and Knorr, are a priority focus, alongside strong local jewels, such as Pot Noodle, Marmite and Colman’s.

About the Role

In the UK Knorr portfolio heartland lies in Bouillons with some presence in Seasonings and Soups. Knorr is the leading brand in Bouillons and setting the pace. However, the challenge as for any brand with 180 years history, is how to retain relevance and affinity in an ever-changing world. In the UK more than half of the population identify themselves as contemporary cooks who get inspired by social media rather than grandma’s recipes, cook flexibly rather than following instructions and love to experiment.

Food has never been a more challenging and dynamic space to work in than today. To ensure Knorr remains relevant it is imperative that we meet our consumer needs and do this by a greater understanding of their real consumer journeys from the zero moment of truth to the end dish experience.

Since 2024 in the UK we embarked on the transformation journey, having launched a much more relatable to contemporary cooks marketing campaign with our ambassador Fred Sirieix and new exciting flavours of stock pots, like red wine. Beyond shoring up the core, we aim to ensure we are fit to compete in an increasingly competitive environment and working on transforming our portfolio.

We are serious about step changing our presence in Seasonings, both in dry and wet formats. In 2025 we launched exciting social first campaigns and new products in this space. We are developing further plans to transform Knorr portfolio and ways we engage with our consumers.

Whilst business focus is largely on Knorr brand, the role remit also includes local jewel brands, such as Colman’s and Bovril that play in meal solutions and bouillons categories respectively.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

You will be leading UK Cooking Aids team where we have a huge ambition to transform Knorr brand from being known for cubes, pots and packets for traditional dishes, to span across multiple contemporary formats for any cuisine imaginable! This implies future proofing our current offer as well as expanding our portfolio and pivoting the way we communicate with our consumers to make brand relevant for contemporary cooking to unlock further growth.

Core objectives of the role will include:

Leading the BTM – the monthly performance meeting for the vertical

Responsible for the delivery of short- and long-term performance of Cooking Aids in the UKI.

Leading the full development & responsibility of Cooking Aids brands including marketing strategies, annual plans and pricing across the portfolio of Cooking Aids.

Act as the primary UKI interface with the BU EU Cooking Aids platform team, whilst being responsible for ensuring the UKI category strategy and plans are well represented at a platform level.

Deliv…