Ben Johnson Email and Phone Number

Adding value to North West businesses using more than 20 years experience in marketing and sales. Worked with clients in the food, automotive and fitness sectors.

Having spent 3 rewarding years at Holts building and empowering a marketing department, delivering business change and positively affecting ebitda, I enjoyed a year spending time with my family and rediscovering many things that had unfortunately fallen by the wayside. Fitness, live music, seeing old friends and even growing chillis are all now firmly back on the agenda.

Holt Lloyd International is an $80m manufacturer of car care products which sells and markets global brands including Holts, Simoniz, Redex and Prestone.Responsibilities• To migrate the business from sales led to marketing driven.• To recruit, coach and develop a category leading, commercially focused marketing team of 10.• To develop and execute brand strategies which deliver a tangible return through a developing team.• To reinvent an online presence, create a digital strategy and champion digital initiatives to ensure continuous improvement.• To own and drive a programme of new product development.• To become indispensible to selected key customers.• To achieve ambitious sales and ebitda targets.

From April 2013, repositioned Tetley biscuits and completed a 2 month assignment with Cottage Delight, a manufacturer of speciality foods....- Created and ran a cross functional workshop to deliver brand understanding and values to the business.- Developed a business/brand strategy with tactics to achieve it.- Provided category management insights to enable more focused range planning.- Presented a streamlined new product development process for improved accountability across the business. - Appraised marketing department and modified roles and responsibilities to both provide greater clarity and improve time utilisation.Prior to this, time was productively spent designing and project managing a large extension to the family home and as a volunteer introducing rugby union to troubled teenagers.

All About Food is an innovative Sales & Marketing business which works with opinion forming restaurant brands (under license) and makes them successful on supermarket shelves. Licensed restaurant brands include Nando's, PizzaExpress, wagamama, Wahaca, Gourmet Burger Kitchen and La Tasca. Cranks is owned by All About Food.Responsibilities• To win new contracts with targeted restaurant brands.• To develop and deliver a pipeline of innovative restaurant brand products in new and existing categories to accelerate business growth.• Importantly, to provide focus to existing profit driving products to ensure their continued growth.• To become indispensible to restaurant brand owners through excellent relationship management and appropriately adding to the restaurant brand experience. Really becoming part of their team!• To manage design, communication, promotion, consumer and shopper insight through a talented team of 4 marketers.• To ensure financial targets are achieved.

Purchased by Dr Oetker in 2008, Schwan’s Europe was the European subsidiary of Schwan’s Sales Enterprises Inc, a privately owned US frozen food manufacturer. Schwan’s Europe manufactured and sold both brand and retailer brand products from 3 European sites and dominated the UK frozen pizza market with the Chicago Town and Freschetta brands.Responsibilities• With an £10m+ advertising and promotion budget managed through 6 key agencies, to develop and implement consumer and trade marketing strategies across Europe ensuring profitable and sustainable growth.• To create, motivate and lead the marketing team.• To have significant category influence with retailers and deliver insightful innovation.

Fast track career progression provided an excellent grounding in the food industry.• Sep 95 to Jun 97 Commercial National Account ManagerManaged the retailer brand business for a portfolio of accounts including Asda, Coop, Kwik Save, Morrisons, Nisa and Somerfield.• Jun 94 to Sep 95 Brand Manager • Jul 93 to Jun 94 Space Planning Manager• Aug 92 to Jul 93 Deputy Regional Sales Manager• Aug 91 to Aug 92 Territory Sales Manager