Country Manager - Canada

🌐 Join ZURU Toys and Revolutionize Canada's Toy Market! 🚀

About ZURU

ZURU is on a mission to disrupt industries, challenge the status quo, and drive change through radical innovation and advances in automation. Our diverse company pillars include:

ZURU Toys: Re-imagining play

ZURU Tech: Leading the next building revolution

ZURU Edge: Pioneering new-generation consumer goods brands to serve modern consumers better

ZURU is one of the fastest-growing and most disruptive companies in the world. A Kiwi grassroots start-up turned global, founded in 2003 by New Zealand EY Entrepreneur of the Year and World Entrepreneur Hall of Fame brothers Nick and Mat Mowbray after they left high school. ZURU has quickly grown to over 5000 + team members in over 30 locations. The company started in toys and quickly became one of the largest in the world, competing with comparatively historic household names by disrupting through automation and innovation. Award-winning brands include Bunch O Balloons, Mini Brands, XSHOT, Rainbocorns and Smashers.

After so much success, the brothers took that model and applied it to consumer goods, creating their second division, ZURU Edge, and redefining the meaning of FMCG, becoming the fastest-growing consumer goods company in the world with new-age brands including MONDAY Haircare, Rascal + Friends, NOOD and Bonkers. ZURU Tech, the newest division, is the company's moon shoot project where they endeavour to truly change the world by disrupting the construction industry. With 600 engineers working across 7 locations ZURU Tech towards the ultimate goal of disrupting how the world builds.

The company’s success is driven by the complete embodiment of the ZURU DNA, the very values that ZURU was founded on. These principles have pioneered an A-player team that is committed to winning through a continuous improvement mindset.

Role Purpose

• ZURU is one of the fastest growing companies in the world that is known for its agility, creativity and new-age manufacturing techniques. The Country Manager to lead the ZURU team in our Toronto Centre of Excellence leading our Toys team and portfolio for Canada.
• Disrupt the market to better meet consumer & customer needs: develop and execute the customer strategic plans to disrupt established players and achieve ZURU company goals across all toy categories.
• Drive ZURU financial performance to unlock the fuel for further investment in growing our share of shelf: proactively manage sales and profit potential to maximize ZURU P&L delivery, unlocking margin to reinvest in our biggest bets. 
• Build long term strategic partnerships that create mutual value & enable delivery of our Canadian business goals: negotiate and execute Joint Business Plans with Walmart and Costco that create the win/win.
• Execute with excellence: maximize availability, visibility and awareness of ZURU brands instore and online via best in class delivery of distribution, feature, display and marketing activation across our biggest bets.
• Be a captain of culture for ZURU: ensure as ZURU rapidly grows we maintain the magic, entrepreneurial culture that enables us to challenge the status quo and win together – whilst always ensuring we put people first and ensure that is instilled day to day in the office.

How You Will Make An Impact

• Focus on building strategic relationships with key Canadian retailers, ensuring our Platform Brands and Big Bet items are maximised every season. In doing so you will ensure ZURU is capturing or over-indexing its Share of Shelf vs competitors. You will work closely with commercial, sales ops and marketing teams to craft pitches to grow listings and drive growth. You will be able to work and deliver results while working as part of a cross-functional team across different time zones.

Core Roles & Responsibilities

• Complete ownership of the account P&L, responsible for driving sales, optimizing trade investment and maximizing product mix to achieve financial goals
• Devise channel and pricing strategy and influence cross-functional adoption to secure the tools, products and support you need to drive your business & win in.
• Leadership of the Canadian sales team to ensure KPIs are met. You will lead from the front, leading our largest account in Canada and showing the team what good looks like.
• Lead cross-functional business teams to drive over achievement against sales performance, P&L and supply metrics
• Constantly add value by developing and improving commercial processes to improve performance and drive efficiencies.
• Focus on initiatives that embed ZURU as a category champion across all buying teams that will enhance and grow business for both ZURU and Walmart.
• Foster a team culture that supports achievement of record breaking market disruption and rapid growth whilst resolving business issues, building relationships and influencing broader capability development

Skills & Experience Required

• Minimum 5 years of experience in CPG/Toy industry
• Strong commercial acumen, strategic thinking, and problem-solving skills
• Demonstrated leadership ability to influence and motivate cross-functional teams, holding stakeholders accountable to deliver business objectives
• Proven successful track record in sales with a partnering approach for long-term objectives and commercial returns
• Ability to assess market trends and offer innovative solutions for customer problems
• Operates effectively in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment
• Toy industry experience preferred but not required

LIFE@ZURU

At ZURU, we have cultivated a high-performing culture that encourages excellence. Our team works towards ambitious goals, learning, performing, and improving together, all while having fun. We empower talented individuals to do their best work every day.

At ZURU, you get out what you put in. You are responsible for driving your own career and we provide the platform to achieve it. As ZURU is on such a fast growth trajectory, there are opportunities here that you won’t find anywhere else.

We recognise that ZURU’s success stems from our people and you can only be at your best when you are looking after yourself. ZURU encourages all our team members to invest in their wellbeing by providing an array of benefits and tools.

ZURU – Tomorrow Reimagined

🚀ZURU.com

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