Background

 

Butternut Box was founded in 2016 and has seen outstanding growth and significant investment during its rapid evolution. A certified B-Corp, Butternut Box is committed to doing better for the planet, people and dogs. In 2023, the business secured £280m of investment from General Atlantic and L Catterton. This significant investment has allowed the business to rapidly develop its international expansion plans. These plans centre around European expansion with Germany the next market to launch. Beyond that, there are a number of

markets that would be attractive considerations including: Austria, Czech Republic, Nordics, Italy and France.

 

Butternut Box fully acquired PsiBufet, a Polish Direct to Consumer dog food brand in 2023. This business provides a foothold from which to establish a new manufacturing plant to serve these markets. As it stands, the business currently serves c.295,000 dogs with 200,000 in the UK, 30,000 in Poland, 20,000 in Benelux and 15,000 in Ireland. To achieve the growth demands will require the UK factory, ‘Rudie’s Kitchen’, to deliver increased output whilst a new Polish operation is commissioned and brought online.

 

The new site is in Zabrze. This new site will be 400,000 sqft (compared to the original UK site at 150,000sqft) and will eventually have 8 lines with the capacity to produce 1,200T per week.

 

Work is required to ready the building for food manufacturing, and this is underway. Once this is completed, equipment will be installed to allow a fulfilment operation to be moved from

an established site. It isn’t anticipated that many of the existing team will move so a new team will need to be recruited and trained to allow first orders to be processed by Summer 2025. Further equipment is being installed and commissioned in readiness for the first production to commence by the beginning of July 2025. Again, a production team will need to be recruited and trained to make this possible. It is envisaged that much of this training will utilise the knowledge and experience gained at Rudie’s.

 

To achieve these goals, a number of key hires need to be made. Initially, a Site Director has been recruited due to start January 2025. A Project Manager has also been appointed from August 2024 to work alongside the project management company who are managing the civil aspects of the site development. A number of additional leadership roles will be required including a Technical Manager, Engineering Manager, People Manager and Operations Manager.

 

It is expected that the Site Director, Project Manager, People Manager, Engineering Manager and Operations Manager will work together to build a team and ready the site for operation from July 2025.

 

Our Values & ways of working

 

A business with people at the very core.  The company has great employee retention and prides itself on giving everyone the chance to stretch themselves in a supportive and inclusive environment.

 

The business’ values are: Dedicated and Determined; Open and Honest; Genuine Care; Strive for Better and For the Love of Dogs.

Recruitment process for Senior Roles

 

• Screen/interview Michael Page
• Video interview Operations Director Butternut & Talent & Development Manager
• Face to face interview in Poland with Site visit
• Site visit to UK to meet Senior Butternut stakeholders

 

Operations Manager

Zabrze

Operations Manager

📣 A bit about the role

This is an exciting opportunity to join a  high growth manufacturing business on a greenfield site, Butternut Box. The Operations Manager will sit on the site leadership team and will report to the Site Director. As an Operations Manager you will be responsible for overseeing the day to day operations of primarily Sam’s Kitchen (our production facility) with full site accountability on nights and weekend inclusive of our fulfilment and warehouse facility, leading up to 10 team leaders on shift.The Operations Manager will play a key part in, driving, communicating and sharing the vision of  the Manufacturing, Fulfilment and Warehouse operations, ensuring we are continuously safe, improving, scaling and delivering excellence to our customers everyday. 

At Butternut things move quickly and as Operations Manager you'll have experience and passion for process improvement, skills development and engaging teams through high growth and / or change.  You will be building your team to deliver a successful commissioning as we scale from 0 to 8 lines.

As part of the role:

An integral part of this role is to take the team on a scaling journey, the way we do a task today won't be the way we do it tomorrow, there will be evolution with growth, your role is to communicate and ensure passion through the below;

Operational Requirements:

• Expertise in a fast moving goods environment with a passion for continuous improvement and a site wide mentality which extends beyond production to all areas of the business.
• Lead, coach and support Team Leaders to drive operational excellence within our Kitchen, always striving to meet and exceed targets for tonnage, cost and number of happy and healthy dogs!
• Report daily and weekly KPI’s, offering a detailed account of variances to the production plan, Health & Safety, people and engineering priorities.
• Drive accountability and the culture for safe working practices in partnership with the Health & Safety Lead and shift leadership team.
• Be accountable for and drive standards on food safety and legislation requirements and in-house quality standards always with our end customers in mind.
• Identify training needs for the team and individuals and ensure adequate coaching and training to enhance flexibility by following an agreed training plan including mandatory compliance training and in-house on the job skills training.
• Promote a continuous improvement environment, identify constraints or bottlenecks and pull a team together to identify and resolve the issue and partner with your counterparts to drive the solution.
• Drive the continuous improvement of operational metrics, performance, and improvements.

Our Culture & Values:

• Be a culture carrier, leading by example and proactively upholding the Butternut Box values in everything you do! 
• Ensure team members have a clear understanding of our company and team goals and their part in helping to achieve this, and help ensure the teams are provided with the resources to achieve this.
• Develop a highly motivated and inclusive team while adopting an open, visible, and supportive management style.
• Confidently undertake meaningful and regular 1:1’s with Squad members, ensuring they feel heard and that their feedback is important to you. You’ll consider their career aspirations, skills and background and tailor your style to their needs.
• Ensure the site always operates at 'audit ready' standards and promote a proactive quality culture within the team.
• Ensure people policies and procedures are applied correctly and consistently across the team and a high performance bar is set.

Communication & Partnership:

• Messages and key communications are delivered to the teams and key stakeholders in a timely and accurate manner. You’ll have an excellent awareness of how your communication style impacts on others and you’ll tailor this to your audience. 
• Partner with the Site Leadership Team functional experts to achieve the best possible and aligned outputs and improvements.
• Work collaboratively with a cross functional team, including but not limited to, Finance, Procurement, People, Technical and Engineering.

A bit about you

• Loves dogs (naturally)
• Strong experience within the fast-moving consumer goods market (FMCG), preferably gained in the food industry within a team oriented culture
• Awareness of continuous improvement concepts and practices.
• Understanding of Health and Safety best practice and current legislative requirements
• A good level of experience gained in a high-speed volume manufacturing environment
• Supervisory experience with broad working knowledge of relevant safety legislation
• Pragmatic, adaptable, resilient and humble
• Well-practiced planning, organisation and scheduling skills
• Someone who loves the pace and excitement of FMCG manufacturing
• Ideally financial and budget control experience
• Hungry for a challenge and keen to build something from the ground up
• Easily approachable with good interpersonal skills, with creative thinking and analytical skills
• Results driven and action oriented
• Problem solving skills and priority setting

🐶 A bit about Butternut

At Butternut, the mission is to deliver health and happiness to dogs and their humans all over the world. In order to do just that, they need a team of forward-thinking, driven people who love dogs as much as they do. And they need quite a big kitchen too. Which is precisely why they have built one.

Located inZabrze, Sam’s Kitchen will be the place where all the magic happens, so to speak. It's where the tasty Butternut meals and treats will be gently cooked, using human-quality ingredients because, the way they see it, they wouldn't serve food to dogs that they wouldn't be happy to eat themselves. At Butternut, they believe dogs deserve better, and if that's something you think too, we want to hear from you.

Butternut has come a long way since Kev & Dave (co-founders) hand-delivered the first Butternut Box, and they are now looking for brilliant people to join the team for this next part of the story.

Are you up for the challenge?