KatKin's Opportunity
For uncompromising cat parents who want the best, KatKin is revolutionising cat health by transforming the lives of cats through superior nutrition. We’re Europe’s first fresh-cooked cat food, made with 100% human-grade meat, gently cooked and frozen to lock in freshness. As a disruptor in the $185bn pet food market, KatKin was founded to challenge the low standards set by the traditional cat food industry, which is worth $50bn globally and is this fastest growing segment in the pet care market. The concept for fresh food is well established in the US, particularly in Dog, with the Farmers’ Dog surpassing >$1B in sales proving the scale of the opportunity.
KatKin is vertically integrated across R&D, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. To date, we've delivered around 62 million fresh meals to over 270,000 happy, healthy cats across the UK. Our team of over 150 spans several locations, including London, USA, and our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Haverhill, Suffolk. We also have customer service teams in both London and South Africa.
KatKin operates a direct-to-consumer (D2C) model supported by a first-class, dedicated customer service team. In addition to our eCommerce channel, our Fresh food and Pantry products are also sold through a growing number of select third-party platforms, including Ocado, Amazon, and Pets at Home.
Where the competition cuts corners, catfishes customers, and puts profits over health, KatKin puts cat well-being first. No shortcuts. No secret recipes. We’re cutting the fluff, thinking fresh, and channelling hardcore love into industry-wide change. So cats live long and cat parents can love hard without compromise.
What we do at KatKin
Why You’ll Love Working With Us
If you want to join an ambitious, mission-driven, high-growth startup that’s making a genuine difference to cats’ (and their people’s) lives, you’ll love working at KatKin. You’ll be surrounded by knowledgeable scientists, big creative thinkers, astute business minds, and a whole team of hardcore cat parents. We’re a small, entrepreneurial, creative team, focused on the mission to give all cats the food they deserve - 100% fresh human-grade meat.
The Role
As our first dedicated Retail Lead, you’ll have end-to-end ownership of a new channel and high-impact work that is critical to driving our growth and innovation. Working with and reporting directly to Senior Leaders in the business, you will work cross-functionally to identify and scale up new retail business opportunities and be the driving force of our long-term ambition to be the leading omnichannel fresh food brand for cats.
You will firstly take the lead on developing new and existing relationships with Pet Speciality Retailers in the UK and Europe, landing new strategic partnerships and scaling these to create from scratch an entirely new category of Fresh Cat within the retail store environment. You will also own Online Retail channels and in time Grocery.
You will have unlimited potential to make an impact on KatKin’s next phase of growth, and towards our North Star to be feeding 1 million cats fresh, healthy food. In our fast-paced start-up environment, you’ll need to be scrappy, resourceful, and hands-on. You will need to be comfortable wearing multiple hats, making decisions in ambiguity, interpreting and presenting data, and delivering measurable results.
Key ownership areas
* End-to-end ownership of retail strategy development and implementation. Understand and drive the role of retail for KatKin, communicate internally and externally, and develop project roadmaps that align with the core strategy.
* P&L accountability, working closely across functions to deliver profitable, high growth in key accounts. Regular analysis of customer dynamics, campaign performance and supply chain performance to identify new opportunities and address challenges.
* New account and expansion of KatKin’s retail listings and store foot print, by working closely with internal teams and retailers.
* Account and stakeholder management with all retail partnerships, and build a clear contact strategy to ensure reliability with the partnerships and the appropriate escalation support where required.
* NPD/EPD of Retail product and packaging. Collaborate with Business Development, R&D, and Operations teams to launch and improve products that win in retail.
* Retail Marketing and Rate of Sales growth. Devise plans and mobilise the required teams both within KatKin and at Retailer Partners to deliver high rate of sales growth. This can include running effective marketing and promotional campaigns, designing merchandising with creative teams, and establishing a field sales team to support in-store.
Who we are looking for:
* Proven track record of delivery: You have owned the scoping, planning and delivery of high impact commercial and/or operational initiatives.
* Problem solving ability: You thrive solving problems in a fast-paced environment, bringing structure to complexity and simplifying in ambiguity. You are able to apply a hypothesis based approach to your work to quickly get to the right answer.
* Project management skills: You are organised and excel at managing multiple projects and stakeholders simultaneously in a time-sensitive, fast-paced environment.
* Analytical mindset: You excel at distilling data into key insights and actionable takeaways to support your work. You can effectively present them in a way that is easily understood by others.
* Effective stakeholder management: You can collaborate with diverse stakeholders, leveraging strong influencing skills to secure alignment and buy-in.
* High Bias for Action: You combine big-picture thinking with a practical ability to execute, quickly identifying and acting on "two-way door" opportunities.
* High performance personality: Demonstrated achievements in demanding work, academic, sporting, and/or personal extracurricular pursuits.
* Thrive in an in-office setting and travel: You value face-to-face connections, collaborative teamwork, and dynamic energy that comes from working alongside passionate people. You readily travel to meet key partners in person.
* Alignment with Core Principles: You align strongly with KatKin’s core operating principles: Think Big, Relentlessly High Standards, Never Give Up, No Egos, Urgency Matters and One Team.
* Bonus: Strong understanding of category management, retail operations, and the dynamics of the retail market.
Nice to haves
What We Offer
* Competitive Package:
o Competitive salary
o AXA Health Insurance, including optical and dental coverage
o Annual personal development budget
o Company-contributed pension
* Culture and Perks:
o A small, close-knit team with no egos
o 33 holiday days each year (including bank holidays) plus your birthday off
o 4-week Work From Anywhere (WFA) policy
o 12-week parental leave policy
o Discount on KatKin fresh meals
o Cat (and dog) friendly office
To Apply
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