Royal Canin Europe - Sales & Marketing VP
Job Description:
Royal Canin Europe is a €2.1 billion NSV business, generating 50% MAC and 35% Earnings, and contributing approximately one-third of Royal Canin Global's topline and nearly 50% of its earnings. The business operates across 28 countries with approximately 1,600 Associates, supported by strong partnerships with pan-European key accounts, local retailers, key opinion leaders, and pet professional recommenders.
Europe is a highly profitable business. At the same time, it continues to offer significant growth potential, currently feeding approximately 9.2 million cats and dogs—only 6% of the pet population in Europe. We have not achieved sustained penetration growth since 2016, and as growth stalled, value creation became increasingly reliant on pricing and productivity initiatives.
Over the past year, we have started to rebuild momentum and return to healthy, quality growth by focusing on:
Shifting mindsets and behaviors.
Making clear choices across our portfolio and channels.
Increasing customer focus and driving execution excellence.
The business also has a significant opportunity to become easier to work with, easier to work for, and easier to choose from by simplifying how we operate while investing in future-fit capabilities, digital technologies, and AI.
Earlier this year, we launched the deployment of our sharpened strategy, Unleash the Power of #1 in Europe, to achieve our ambition of reaching €2.5 billion NSV by 2030. The strategy is built around three strategic priorities:
Becoming the #1 Recommended brand in priority health territories.
Becoming the #1 Preferred Partner for our customers.
Becoming the #1 Preferred Brand for pet owners.
The Sales & Marketing Vice President plays a critical role in delivering this strategy.
The role is accountable for accelerating sustainable, quality growth while co-leading the transformation of the business through our health agenda, digital core and digital growth initiatives. Equally important, the role is responsible for strengthening organizational capability by developing talent, fostering Associate engagement, and building the capabilities required to win in the future.
The European Sales & Marketing VP will be a catalyst and the major co-pilot of our accelerated growth agenda in the Region including but not limited to the following key responsibilities:
Overall Business Performance
Deliver Business performance – growth, MAB spend, MAC improvements, demand OHs key metrics for Royal Canin Europe
Focused and Scaled
Lead the development/deployment of Strategic Growth plans in line with Global Petcare/Royal Canin OGSM, Growth Model, Royal Canin EU Ambition and Annual Demand Planning and in partnership with Global Teams, Regional Directs, and Country Unit leadership teams, across multi-year and in-year AEP time horizons, specifically:
Provide input to Global Demand strategies to ensure they meet market needs
Develop and deploy Pet Professional, Pet Speciality Retailing, and Brand Direct to Pet Owner (VCMs) specific plans, transformations and activations across the Region inclusive but not limited to brand activation, category/sales fundamentals, education, sampling and portfolio roll-out
Lead the Demand community through the Regional and Unit VCM Leaders to execute with excellence
Lead the Strategic Revenue Management program for the Region that is responsible for ~ 650MM Euro budget across 28 markets on Pricing, Promotion, Trade Terms, Mix driving step-change in ROI
Allocate 100MM Euro A&P budget dynamically across the Region for the highest ROI and strategic opportunities driving clarity on the investments that have the greatest health and growth impact
Embed Selective distribution principles (Clinical Alliance), prepare Elective distribution principles and identify/prepare customer Whitespace opportunities
Quarterback the direct to pet owner capabilities (e.g., media, content, D&A, CRM), D2C flagship store platform, and B2B digital demand platforms (Vet Services, Royal Start, Webshop) for the Region in partnership with Global COEs and the local Units
Support local key business transformations
Identify market opportunities and plans by Value Creation Model by Market (Pet Professional, Retail, B&PO)
Partner in the EOS Digital Core end-to-end business transformation
Scorecard the business to determine performance drivers, where to reinvest and divest
Human, Capable, and Connected
Actively participate and lead in Global Demand Leadership Team Plus, European Leadership Team and European Functional Leadership Team
Deliver Great Line Management for Regional Demand Team
Support talent development for Regional Demand Talent pipeline (in partnership with GM’s) to ensure rich succession
Diagnose Demand capability needs and lead the capabilities and skills development of the Demand community
Drive Enterprise Effectiveness in terms of digital demand platform effectiveness, purposeful choices and Ways of Working into the business
Support European Associate Value proposition: (1) Onboarding new Associates with regional framework (2) Encouraging meaningful connections (3) Invigorating our Purpose thru Health Connects 2.0 (4) Driving choice, recognition and energy thru the regional S&M team to the markets
Lead the functional communities in planning, capability building and best practice sharing
Context & Scope
Reports to European Regional President
Located in Aimargues, France at Royal Canin Global Headquarters (preferred) or London, UK
Travel: 25-35% of time
Key Contacts:
Regional President
FELT (Functional European Leadership Team)
Regional Demand Team – Direct Team
European Chief Customer Officer
European General Managers
Demand communities across markets (General Managers and their direct reports)
Global Demand team inclusive of Demand Leadership Team (DLT) and Demand Leadership Team + (DLT+)
Experience and Capabilities Required
Love and advocacy for pets and the role nutrition plays in health
Knowledge and experience in professional recommendation (business to business) model e.g., pharma, beauty
10+ years experience in Sales and Marketing roles
Demonstrated capability in driving data-driven digital growth and MAB and SRM ROI
Demonstrated ability to build teams, collaborate effectively and influence across lines, in multinational environment
Transformational change leader
GM background preferred
Petcare category experience preferred
Target: Regional President Succession Pipeline