Job Description
Wasabi now has 42 thriving restaurants across London and major UK cities and 4 in New York and in 2019, we introduced Wasabi Home Bento the grocery channel, launching exclusively in Sainsbury s. Building on that success, the grocery business broadened its reach to Tesco in September 2022, followed by exciting launches in Co-op and Morrisons in 2024. Wasabi grocery has seen phenomenal growth and is now a £62m RSV brand. Wasabi proudly stands as the No. 2 chilled ready-meal brand in the market, consistently attracting new customers to the category through an innovative East Asian range. Wasabi s menu is celebrated for its unique character, exceptional freshness, and bold flavours. Our diverse range is designed to delight a wide audience, delivering both comfort and excitement with every bite. We have an ambitious 5-year growth strategy, focusing on new restaurants, franchise partnerships, and international expansion.
As we prepare for our next phase of growth and innovation, we have an incredibly exciting opportunity for a Manufacturing Manager to join our Central Production Unit based in Park Royal.
The Role:
The Manufacturing Manager is responsible for managing manufacturing operations that service both Wasabi restaurants and Grocery customers. The role leads production stream teams to ensure the highest standards of people and product safety, product quality, ESG compliance, customer service, asset reliability, cost management, and overall profitability.
The business operates with two Manufacturing Managers, working in close partnership. Each Manufacturing Manager has defined primary areas of responsibility; for this role, the primary focus is leading the High-Risk Assembly and Low-Risk Packing teams. However, Manufacturing Managers are jointly accountable for overall manufacturing performance and are expected to provide cover and leadership across each other s areas of responsibility as required, including during periods of absence, peak demand, or business need.
A strong understanding of Continuous Improvement methodologies and a performance-driven culture is essential for success in the role. The Manufacturing Manager will play a key role in building capable, engaged teams through effective leadership, coaching, and development, fostering a culture of learning, collaboration, and continuous improvement of systems and processes.
This role is critical in developing and delivering the manufacturing strategy to support the company s operational excellence, business goals, and long-term growth ambitions.
Key Responsibilities:
- Manage the performance of all Group Production Managers & Process Leaders in High-Risk Assembly and Low-Risk Packing teams
- Set clear targets and ensure delivery against manufacturing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including; Near Misses, Customer Complaints, Internal & External Audits, Customer Service, Labour, Waste, Yield and Efficiency
- Make KPIs visible across the manufacturing lines to enable effective quick decision making.
- Plan labour hours & heads to deliver the production plan ensuring that customer service and cost targets are met safely and to the agreed quality.
- Proactive and effective in planning and executing labour recovery plans for breakdowns.
- Execute production line schedules in the correct sequence to optimise the flow of product from kitchen and to despatch.
- Track & optimise machine / line efficiency by working closely with the Engineering team to prevent breakdowns, maximise line running speed, minimise changeover time & other efficiency losses.
- Ensure that all activities have formal risk assessments and corrective actions have been completed as a priority.
- Promote positive safety behaviours, root causing near misses and coaching team members to work safely.
- Ensure that all team members have the appropriate training to do their required tasks in a safe manner.
- Ensure all safety checks are completed at the appropriate frequencies, and ensure the environment is as safe as possible for all team members to work in.
- Develop robust standards for all Manufacturing processes that meet Legal, BRCGS, EHO and other external and internal requirements including; people safety, HACCP, TACCP, GMP, Complaints, Non-Conformances etc.
- Conduct layered confirmation to confirm standards are in place and effective across the production stream.
- Ensure product quality attributes are delivered Right First Time and that all products meet customer expectations.
- Review customer complaints, identify trends and implement corrective actions to continuously reduce Complaints Per Million Units received.
- Work with the Quality team to implement and maintain Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). Correct all non-conformances in a timely manner ensuring no issues repeat.
- Ensure all equipment is maintained and cleaned as directed by the Quality Management System to prevent cross contamination and microbial growth.
- Work cross functionally with the Low Risk Kitchen, Warehouse, Despatch, Engineering & Hygiene teams to ensure customer & business targets are met.
- Build a high performing team.
- Ensure clear and aligned objectives, priorities and PART behaviours are set throughout all levels.
- Exemplify a best practice approach across all areas such as, performance management, succession planning, objective setting, coaching and mentoring.
- Involve the team in priority problem solving activities and promote a culture of learning and development.
- Develop a culture of Continuous Improvement to drive performance against set KPIs
- Support with the development of manufacturing strategy to deliver business goals & growth ambitions
- Identify CI projects to deliver set targets and execute them through the team.
- Deliver reliable asset performance through effective delivery of autonomous maintenance programmes.
- Analyse data & use 8 Step Practical Problem Solving to optimise efficiencies and raw material utilisation whilst minimising waste and rejects.
- Set and hold the daily/weekly routine (tier meetings, KPI review, escalation cadence) to drive predictable performance.
- Support site ESG agenda ensuring commitments are delivered across areas of responsibility.
Our Requirements:
- Extensive experience in a similar role within a short shelf-life food manufacturing environment.
- An excellent decision maker who understands problem containment, problem solving, risk identification& mitigation.
- A disciplined and organized leader.
- An excellent communicator with strong interpersonal skills and the ability to effectively engage with a wide variety of stakeholders at all levels.
- An inspirational leader with the ability to achieve excellent results.
- Proven ability to lead and influence others. A persuasive individual and a natural change agent, who can create, plan, deploy and execute change at pace.
- A leader who thrives under pressure working in a fast paced and challenging environment.
In return we provide:
- A great working environment
- Pension scheme
- Target Bonus
- Refer A Friend Scheme
- Free Sushi or hot food (vegan options available)
- 50% discount in our Branches
- Employee Assistant Programme
- (a service providing health and wellbeing support)
- Long Service Awards
- Wagestream - a financial wellbeing benefit that lets you access your pay as you earn it in real time and manage savings
- Life Assurance
- Electric Vehicle Scheme through Octopus
- Cycle To Work
- Free on-site parking
- A variety of discounts (shopping, food & drink, entertainment and health & fitness) through Perkbox and
- The opportunity to develop your skills within a growing company.
Our people make us who we are. If you're looking for an exciting challenge and this sounds like the job for you please apply today as we can't wait to hear from you.
COME ROLL WITH US!
