Managing Director – Nisa 

c£250,000 plus excellent benefits (Work Level 2)  

Scunthorpe/Hybrid 

In this role you’ll work in a hybrid way, splitting your time between home and the office (find out more about our hybrid working policy at colleagues.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy). 

We’re looking for a Managing Director (MD) to lead our Nisa wholesale business.  

2024 was a difficult year for independent retailers. Economic pressures and changing consumer behaviours meant our Nisa partners faced into some serious challenges. And while having the scale of an organisation like Co-op behind them brought big benefits, we all learned some hard lessons about shaping a wholesale proposition that works for independents.

As our MD, you’ll drive the modernisation and repositioning of the Nisa brand. We’ve laid the foundations – refreshing our leadership and rebuilding many of our capabilities. And we have a new wholesale strategy to take us through to 2030 which, if executed properly, will give Nisa back its trading edge. That’s where you come in.

We’ll look to you to bring the best of our Co-op to our trusted partners. You’ll need to re-engage them – give them a voice to help shape a revised wholesale proposition that leverages everything that’s great about the Co-op offering, but provides clear value to partners and makes Nisa the logical choice for independent retailers across the UK.

This is a role like no other in the wholesale sector. If you can work effectively to influence our partners and leaders across a large, complex organisation with an established one buyer model, we can offer you the opportunity to shape the future of a £1.4bn business. 

What you’ll do

• Lead the Nisa wholesale business, motivating and inspiring a team of over 300 colleagues 

• Lead the execution of our Nisa strategy and drive the Co-op difference in products and values dovetailing with the food pure convenience strategy 

• Enable a unique wholesale own brand offer through the Co-op Brand range 

• Put our retail partners at the heart of our wholesale proposition, ensuring our revised offering provides significant value to established and prospective partners 

• Shape a clear mission statement for our partners to develop a Nisa customer base that is loyal, profitable and values independence 

• Lead the synergy work with the Co-op Operating Model and scale the buying benefits to Co-op through other societies and partners 

• Enable a unique wholesale own brand offer through the Coop Brand range 

• Enable and enhance Nisa’s unique national distribution (chilled) network through potential integration with the Co-op network 

• Drive a focus on diversity and inclusion in our culture to encourage career development and retention  

• Deliver and enable cross-functional talent moves between Nisa and Co-op 

This role would suit people who have

• Extensive commercial leadership experience, ideally gained in the wholesale industry 

• Significant P&L responsibility, coupled with strong commercial awareness and the ability to identify opportunities that drive growth  

• The ability to engage and influence both senior Co-op leaders and Nisa’s independent partners 

• Inspirational people leadership skills, able to motivate and develop broad based teams  

• Actively promotes an inclusive culture that encourages career development, retention and pan Coop working. 

• An analytical approach with the ability to use data and insights to identify opportunities 

• The ability to shape and drive change within a large, matrix organisation 

Why Co-op? 

If you can lead our wholesale business, we can offer you an excellent salary and a benefits package which includes 30% off Co-op branded products in our food stores (as well as other discounts on Co-op products and services). 

• An annual bonus (based on personal and business performance) 

• A company car or car allowance  

• 28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays  

• A pension with up to 10% employer contributions 

• Private healthcare for you and your family  

Building a diverse working environment

We’re actively building diverse teams and we welcome applications from everyone. If you have a disability, we can make reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process according to your needs. We're also part of the Disability Confident scheme, meaning we'll always offer an interview to disabled candidates who apply through the scheme if they meet the minimum criteria for a job. 

We'll ask whether you’d like to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme when you apply. 

If we invite you to take part in the recruitment process for any of our jobs, we’ll ask you if you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to participate. 

You can find out more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process

You can find out more about the Disability Confident scheme and all our commitments to diversity and inclusion at jobs.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion-wellbeing

As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes between 45-60 minutes.