Sophie Blake (Simms)

Part of Nomad Foods, Europe's largest frozen food company, with family favourite UK brands such as Birds Eye, Goodfellas and Aunt Bessie's. My role included P&L responsibility for a complex portfolio covering four subsectors across Birds Eye Vegetables & Vegetarian, with a sales value of over £160 million. Key achievements include: - launch of key innovation across all major retailers, exceeding distribution targets and driving category growth by attracting new consumers into the range - campaign development including working with celebrity ambassadors, becoming the brand's most successful social campaign and used as best in class examples for other European markets

Cathedral City is the company's largest brand and UK's number one cheese brand with sales of £280 million. Role includes line management responsibility of one direct report. Key achievements include: - launching a new communications platform and through-the-line advertising campaign - developing a new social media and influencer strategy - launching a category-leading packaging innovation, supported by a social media-led campaign

Key achievements include: - leading the creation and launch of Cathedral City's new brand identity, packaging design and brand world; the first redesign in 6 years - consumer insights-based proposition development and launch of category-leading innovation which was subsequently voted as Dairy Product of the Year 2021 - launching a category-first recycling programme and developing a PR-led launch campaign

Responsible for Utterly Butterly and Vitalite with a combined RSV of £30 million. Key achievements: - Driving Utterly Butterly to become the number one value spread - Capitalising on the number one dairy-free brand position of Vitalite by extending the brand into new categories of baking and cheese alternatives to secure long-term, profitable growth

A former division of Pfizer, Zoetis is the world’s largest animal health pharmaceutical company operating in over 100 countries with a revenue of $4.8bn. Managing a portfolio containing market-leading products, my responsibilities included: - creating and executing the annual brand plan - developing innovative marketing campaigns that challenged the industry norm to drive engagement and recall - tailoring NPD packaging and formulating the local launch programme to maximise penetration and category growth - marketing budget management and product profitability analysis - leading the cross-functional team - financial and product demand forecasting Key achievement: developing the social media and blog strategy and content calendars, which won the 2017 ‘Best B2B Sector Social Media Strategy/Campaign’ pan-industry award

Spectrum Brands is a global and diversified consumer products company operating in 160 countries owning brands such as Russell Hobbs, Remington, George Foreman and Varta. In January 2015, the company acquired FMCG pet care IAMS and Eukanuba in Europe. I worked on the pet food brand Eukanuba and on FURminator, the global market leader of deshedding tools. Responsibilities included: - working with the Heads of Marketing for 24 countries to understand the individual markets' needs in order to create successful pan-European campaigns - developing the brand strategy and campaigns including management of multiple agencies - leading Eukanuba's most significant and complex commercial campaign based on 10 years of scientific observations - designing and launching Eukanuba's first ever interactive app to drive in-store conversion Key achievement: extending Eukanuba's point of market programme to improve ROI and drive penetration and brand awareness

Initially working as Associate Brand Manager of the Companion Animal portfolio, I was later appointed as Interim Brand Manager of the cardio-renal category. My roles involved: - owning the execution of the parasitology campaign to drive penetration - assessing the brand plans to identify budget efficiencies to enable reinvestment in upcoming NPD launch plans Key achievement: supporting with managing the launch of the P&G Pet Care collaboration, ensuring defined benefits for both parties were realised through effective stakeholder management