Job Description
General Manager – Food Manufacturing
This is not a role where you inherit a smooth-running machine and simply keep it ticking over. This is a role where your leadership will truly matter.
In this role you will take full accountability for a large, highly complex, 24/7 food manufacturing facility. The site brings together multiple functions – Production, Engineering, Logistics, Health & Safety and Continuous Improvement and your role will be to align them behind one clear, high-performance vision.
You will set the tone. From early morning production reviews to strategic conversations at board level, you will move confidently between the shop floor and the senior leadership team. You will know your numbers – labour, materials, overheads – and you will know your people. This is a role that requires both operational grip and emotional intelligence.
The Environment
This is complex FMCG manufacturing at scale.
The site produces a broad mix of branded and own-label products for major retail customers, operating in a high-SKU, high-volume environment where expectations are uncompromising. Audit standards are rigorous. Food safety is non-negotiable.
The manufacturing processes themselves demand strong technical understanding and operational discipline, including extrusion technology and other specialist production systems. Balancing safety, quality, cost and delivery without allowing one to compromise another is the daily challenge.
For the right leader, it is exactly the kind of environment that energises rather than intimidates.
Key Responsibilities
* Your remit will span the full spectrum of site leadership.
* You will champion a zero-harm culture, ensuring health, safety and environmental standards are not just policies on paper, but lived behaviours across the operation. At the same time, you will ensure absolute compliance with food safety legislation and customer requirements, protecting both the consumer and the reputation of the business.
* Financial performance will sit firmly within your control. Delivering the in-year budget across labour, raw materials and overheads will require discipline, data-led decision-making and close collaboration with your senior team. Service performance and schedule adherence will demand structure and pace, particularly within a fast-moving retail supply environment.
* Beyond the numbers, your impact will be cultural. The site has strong foundations, but like many complex operations, it needs alignment, clarity and consistency. You will build a leadership team that is accountable, engaged and visible. You will strengthen succession planning and capability development. You will foster constructive union relationships built on openness and mutual respect.
* And you will work collaboratively with peers across the wider group, sharing best practice and contributing to a broader operational strategy that extends beyond one site.
The Person
* We are looking for a senior food manufacturing leader who has walked this path before.
* You will have operated at site leadership level within a complex FMCG environment and will be able to demonstrate tangible improvements in KPIs, culture and commercial performance. Continuous improvement methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma or TPM will not just be qualifications on your CV — they will be tools you have actively used to deliver change.
* You will understand the dynamics of unionised environments and know how to build constructive, solutions-focused relationships. Financial acumen will be second nature, as will the ability to translate strategy into operational reality.
* Most importantly, you will be a leader people choose to follow. Visible. Credible. Calm under pressure. Comfortable influencing at board level, yet equally present on the shop floor. Someone who develops others, sets clear expectations and holds themselves — and their team to high standards.
Investment & Support
* This business understands that sustainable performance does not happen by accident – it happens through investment and strong leadership.
* There is a clear capital roadmap in place, with meaningful investment being directed into equipment, automation, systems and site capability. This includes enhancements to technical processing areas such as extrusion-based manufacturing, alongside broader operational improvements designed to strengthen efficiency and resilience.
* Importantly, the support is real. The C-suite team are engaged, visible and pragmatic. They recognise both the strengths of the site and the challenges it has faced, and they are committed to building a stronger future.
* Having partnered with them previously and placed senior leaders into the organisation, I can confidently say this is a business that backs its people, particularly those who step forward and take ownership.
* This is a defining opportunity for an experienced food manufacturing General Manager who is motivated not just by running a site, but by elevating it.
For more information, please contact Shaf Islam on si@zestfoodjobs.co.uk for more information or contact 01780 483999.