Business Performance Director - Hemel Hempstead at Selecta · Hemel…

About Selecta

Selecta is the largest provider of unattended self-serve coffee and convenience food in Europe, leading the way in vending solutions and specialist coffee services.

Selecta operates across 16 countries within Europe, serving 12 million people every day. Within the UK, we deliver a national service trusted by circa 3,500 businesses to provide digital-first vending solutions across workplaces, schools, universities, hospitals, transport hubs, and other high-traffic environments.

As a 24/7 food and drinks distribution and technology-led powerhouse, Selecta provides millions of moments of joy to end consumers across Europe. Our solutions include digital vending machines, coffee machines, smart fridges, snack markets, and other unattended retail formats.

Purpose of the Role

Value creation requires stronger execution of commercial and operational opportunities across LFL growth, customer profitability, gross margin, visit efficiency and machine productivity. These opportunities span Sales, Operations and Planning, so accountability is currently fragmented and benefits are not delivered consistently.

The Business Performance Director is directly responsible for SWAT initiatives, LFL sales growth, commercial and operational delivery, gross margin improvement and EBITDA delivery — converting the improvement agenda into executed change in the commercial organisation and the field operation alike. The role carries the autonomy to deliver and execute: within agreed targets and governance, the Director decides how initiatives are resourced, sequenced and driven, and is accountable for the outcome rather than the activity. The role provides a single point of accountability for identifying, prioritising and — above all — delivering measurable improvements in revenue growth, gross margin and customer profitability, and for ensuring every benefit is quantified, tracked and validated through to EBITDA. The role also sets the organisation's performance standards, coordinates organisation-wide planning and provides strategic insight to senior leaders and the Board, so that improvement activity stays aligned to long-term strategy and the business sustains its competitive advantage. The role exists to solve an execution and benefits-realisation challenge, including opportunity-identification one: success is judged on delivered financial outcomes, not activity completed.

Strategic planning & performance management

• Develop and implement performance strategies and standards aligned with the organisation's strategic goals, and define the KPIs, targets and measurement methodologies through which performance is managed.
• Coordinate organisation-wide planning: lead long-term strategic planning and manage the portfolio of improvement initiatives so resources concentrate on the highest-value opportunities.
• Monitor and analyse performance metrics and data across the business to identify areas for improvement, and produce comprehensive reporting on the performance of each area of the organisation.
• Collaborate with departments across the business to align their objectives and performance standards with the organisation's goals.
• Monitor the effectiveness of performance strategies and management systems, and make the adjustments needed to optimise results — re-scoping, accelerating or stopping initiatives as the evidence dictates.
• Provide strategic insight and performance analysis to senior leaders, the Executive Committee and the Board to inform decision-making and protect competitive advantage.
• Stay informed about performance trends, industry developments and advancements in performance management practice, and bring relevant innovations into the business.

SWAT initiatives & rapid performance response

• Own and lead SWAT initiatives: stand up small, time-boxed, cross-functional taskforces against the highest-value or most urgent performance problems (e.g. LFL decline in a region, margin leakage in a category, a failing contract).
• Define each SWAT's mandate on day one — quantified target, team, sprint timeline and decision rights — and clear blockers fast through direct executive escalation.
• Run SWATs to a rapid cadence (weekly sprints, visible actions, measured results) and disband or convert them into business-as-usual ownership once the benefit is banked.
• Maintain a pipeline of candidate SWAT targets from the dashboard, branch visits and frontline insight, so the next deployment is always ready.

Revenue growth & machine productivity

• Own the LFL recovery agenda: pricing strategy review, product availability, planogram and range optimisation, promotional effectiveness and segment-specific growth initiatives.
• Improve sales per machine through product mix optimisation and consumer insight (segmentation and proposition development).

Gross margin improvement

• Drive gross margin improvement through product mix management, margin-accretive substitutions and category decisions.
• Reduce wastage, stock loss and shrinkage across the estate.

Customer profitability

• Run a rolling programme of customer and contract profitability reviews, pricing reviews and rebate optimisation.
• Build and maintain cost-to-serve analysis and establish pricing governance to protect margin at the point of sale.

Service productivity & operational excellence

• Improve revenue per visit, visit compliance, fill quality and telemetry accuracy; eliminate unnecessary visits.
• Champion system adoption and data quality across the operator network.

Benefits realisation & governance

• Build and own the initiative register: every initiative carries a quantified financial target, an agreed owner and a defined tracking methodology.
• Operate the governance framework end to end: opportunity identified, business case developed, financial target agreed, owner assigned, initiative delivered, benefits validated, benefits sustained.
• Produce the monthly Business Performance dashboard and executive reporting: target vs delivered EBITDA benefit, benefit pipeline, RAG status and executive actions required.
• Validate realised benefits with Finance so that only auditable, banked improvements are reported.

Leadership & cross-functional delivery

• Exercise the autonomy granted to the role: make execution decisions, commit resources and adjust delivery plans within the agreed mandate, using governance for transparency and escalation rather than permission-seeking.
• Take ownership of commercial and operational delivery: ensure initiatives land as executed change in sales teams, branches and the field operation, not as plans on paper.
• Lead and develop the Planning & Performance team: recruit, coach and build dedicated analytical and delivery capability within the function.
• Mobilise and lead cross-functional teams across Commercial, Operations and Planning, including contributors outside the direct line.
• Coach initiative owners on delivery discipline and embed a performance-management culture across the business.

People performance & capability

• Guide and motivate employees to improve performance and achieve goals, setting clear expectations and celebrating success.
• Identify training and capability needs across the business, and provide coaching and organise workshops and training programmes that build the skills and performance of teams across the improvement agenda.
• Implement performance management systems, monitor their effectiveness and refine them over time.
• Manage and resolve performance-related issues and conflicts constructively, and recommend and oversee performance improvement plans where needed (in partnership with HR).
• Ensure compliance with industry standards and legal and regulatory requirements relating to performance management.

Visibility & engagement

• Be visible across the business: spend regular time in branches, depots and with field operators — not just at head office — through a structured rhythm of site visits and route ride-alongs.
• Interact directly with teams at every level: listen to frontline colleagues, involve them in shaping initiatives, and bring their insight back into the improvement agenda.
• Communicate openly with the teams affected by change: explain the why behind initiatives, share progress and results, and recognise the contribution of the people delivering them.
• Act as an approachable, trusted point of contact so that improvement ideas and delivery blockers surface early from anywhere in the organisation.

Experience

• Proven track record of delivering quantified EBITDA improvement in a multi-site, route-based or distributed operations business (vending, FMCG, foodservice, retail or logistics).
• Experience leading commercial performance or margin improvement programmes with finance-validated benefits.
• Track record of cross-functional delivery through influence: mobilising sales, operations and support functions without full line authority.
• Experience operating benefits-realisation governance: initiative registers, business cases, RAG reporting and executive steering.
• Experience of long-term strategic planning, portfolio management and presenting to Boards or investor audiences.
• Demonstrated leadership of planning, performance or analytics teams, with a record of developing people.

Skills & knowledge

• Strong grasp of performance management principles: standard-setting, KPI design, target cascades and review cadences.
• Strategic mindset: able to connect initiative-level delivery to long-term plans and competitive positioning.
• Strong commercial finance literacy: contract P&Ls, cost-to-serve, pricing economics and rebate structures.
• Advanced analytical capability and comfort with telemetry, machine-level and customer-level data.
• Confident communicator at Executive Committee level, with concise, numbers-led reporting.
• Preferrable:- Finance background either worked within FP&A or Financial Control.

Attributes

• Delivery-obsessed: judges success on banked benefit, not activity.
• Comfortable operating with high autonomy: takes decisions, owns the consequences and keeps stakeholders informed without needing direction.
• Resilient and pragmatic; able to challenge constructively across functions and hold owners to account.
• Visible and hands-on: works in branches and with field teams as readily as at head office, and is known across the business, not just in the boardroom.
• Strong interpersonal skills: builds genuine relationships at every level, from operators and merchandisers to the Executive Committee, and engages teams rather than directing from a distance.

What’s in it for you?

• 25 days of annual leave plus bank holidays

• Life assurance

• Five weeks of occupational paid sick leave for added security

• Free parking at our Head Office and other depot locations

• Unlimited coffee and tea to keep you refreshed

• Clear career progression paths with development opportunities

• Strong leadership support to help you thrive

• Employee recognition scheme to celebrate your contributions

• Mental health and wellbeing support, including access to mental health first aiders

• Health Cash Plan

• Very attractive bonus scheme for those who exceed targets

At Selecta, we are committed to equal opportunities, diversity, and inclusion, embracing our differences to achieve our common goal. We are united in our principle of making people feel great, and we are grounded by our purpose to create more moments of joy for everyone through our ways of working. We welcome applications from all individuals regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws. If you require any adjustments or accommodations during the recruitment process, please let us know