Head of Strategic Pricing and Promotion in Chester House, Epsom Ave, Handforth, Cheadle, Greater Manchester, SK9 3DF Office based working from our Handforth Support Office for 2 to 3 days a week

Location: Office based working from our Handforth Support Office for 2 to 3 days a week

Pets at Home Group Plc is the UK’s leading pet care business; our commitment is to make sure pets and their owners get the very best advice, products and care. We have over 450 stores, over 310 Groom Rooms and 440 First Opinion Vet Practices. Our business is fast-paced, innovative and fun and it's our people that make the real difference. This is a fantastic opportunity to come and work for an award-winning company who put people at the very heart of everything they do.

About the role

The Head of Strateguc Pricing and Promotion  is responsible for shaping the strategic direction of our Value offer for customers across both store and online channels. This includes:

• The price and promotional strategy for the business and how this works alongside our Loyalty and Subscription propositions.

You will lead the existing Price and Promotion team and will be responsible for owning and implementing our ongoing customer value proposition across the Pets at Home business. Be responsible for ensuring the development of appropriate tools, principles and communication processes to ensure our value strategy is well designed and is implemented effectively.

Responsibilities

Pricing strategy

• Define and deliver a comprehensive pricing strategy for the Pets at Home business. Utilise all available data and insights to drive ongoing pricing development initiatives
• Establish key performance metrics relating to our price proposition, with performance updates and improvement initiatives consistently communicated to key stakeholders
• Working closely with Commercial Finance, define and implement effective pricing review processes and KPI’s.
• Develop and utilise all existing pricing tools. Ensure the ongoing development of colleague facing insight tools, automation opportunities and other capabilities required to deliver an effective Value strategy
• Identify, implement, and report on opportunities to maximise profit within our agreed Value framework. Further develop our elasticity modelling to support our price investment decisions
• Establish strong and effective ways of working with our Data Science and Insight functions to ensure the customer impact of pricing decisions are included within our analysis and recommendations

Promotion Strategy

• Work collaboratively with Commercial and Marketing teams to establish a robust promotional planning process that covers planning at lead time, implementation and review
• Lead analytical project to assess the performance of previous promotional activity and use this to inform better quality future decisions
• Own and develop the reporting methods and reviews required to understand our underlying promotional performance. Call out successes, and identify areas of further opportunity
• Establish strong and effective ways of working with our Data and insight function to ensure the customer impact of promotional decisions are included within our analysis and recommendations

Cross Functional Working

• Strong and consistent engagement with the relevant Marketing functions to ensure close alignment, and a shared strategy, that takes into account pricing, promotion, loyalty and subscription propositions
• Effective ways of working with Commercial and Supply teams to ensure strong forecasting (at lead time) and appropriate allocation of stock based on our price and promotional activity
• Close and effective ways of working with the Head of Activity Planning to deliver an annual trade plan that delivers against our financial and customer objectives
• Work closely with the Head of eCommerce to develop greater ecommerce trading insights that support digital centric trading across the wider organisation
• Build strong relationships with Digital product teams to ensure pricing and promotional activity requirements are built into customer facing roadmaps

Leadership

• Strong and visible leadership of the Price & Promotion function to ensure the required skills and processes are in place to deliver against business requirement and KPI’s
• Lead and develop your direct team and play a leadership role across the broader Commercial function
• Create a pipeline of great talent and succession planning within the team and as a key leader across the broader Commercial team
• Represent the Commercial function strongly at key planning and communication meetings as required

Experience Required.

• Significant experience in a senior pricing & promotions role
• Strong financial and analytical acumen to maximise sales and profitability
• Your experience to date will have given you a broad and comprehensive understanding of other business functions including Marketing, Finance and Analytics.
• Ability to spot trends across the market and make effective changes to the pricing and promotional strategy where required
• You will have experience of managing business investments and budgets
• Experience in creating and delivering strategic plans and budget forecasts
• Experience in line management, coaching and mentoring
• You will have the confidence, experience and gravitas required to represent the function strongly with key internal stakeholders and key external partners

Experience, Knowledge & Expertise – Desirable

• Prior experience in Pricing, Promotions, Rewards. Experience in a similar industry / consumer focussed sector would be desirable
• Experience of complex data projects in terms of governance, prioritisation and management
• Evidence and experience of the development of pricing and promotional tooling with internal teams and 3rd party providers
• Experience of working closely with Commercial, eCommerce, Marketing and Analytics teams would be helpful

You will must:

• Demonstrate the ability to use sound commercial judgement, to prioritise and deal effectively with fast changing scenarios, and to ensure that decisions are made and communicated in a timely manner.
• Have the  ability to build and maintain rapport and strong working relationships with other key senior stakeholders to deliver on the right outcomes is therefore essential. Staying ‘consumer obsessed’ at all times and keeping up with the changing nature of the market is critical.

Our diversity and inclusion vision is that everyone is welcome and feels part of our group. If you think you’re a good match to what we are looking for, and you share our belief that together ‘we’re better with pets’, we’d like to hear from you, whatever your background or circumstances.

About our purpose

Far more than a retailer, Pets at Home Group is the UK’s leading pet care specialist, fulfilling every possible pet and owner need, from food and accessories to grooming and vet services. Since 1991, we’ve been building a business around pets and their owners and we’ve set our sights on becoming the best pet care business in the world. Join us now and you can be part of that journey, developing your future as we develop ours. This is a place where you can take pride and passion in your work within an inspiring, professional team that’s focused on supporting pets and their owners to live happier lives together.

We’re driven by the wellbeing of pets and we make sure we look after our people too. We depend on your commitment and innovation, and reward it with competitive pay and comprehensive benefits. Together we’ll create the future of pet care.