SSP Group is a global travel-focused food & beverage specialist, operating in airports, railway stations, and motorway services. Its portfolio includes company-owned brands like Upper Crust, Caffè Ritazza, Eat, and Signs & Wonders, as well as licensed international partners such as Starbucks, Burger King, Häagen?Dazs, and Yo! Sushi.
Serving travellers in over 30 countries, SSP covers categories like quick-service meals, coffee & snacks, and casual dining, delivering tailored food & drink experiences on the move.
The Brief
Following an internal re-structure, 2 existing Senior Managers were promoted to Head Of Commercial for their Retail and Bars divisions, with a need to hire externally for a Head of Commercial for their Coffee & Bakery division.
Being a unique business with the structure of their roles, this had the potential to be a broad search with candidates having the transferrable skills to come from either FMCG commercial, Retail buying and of course Foodservice/Hospitality Commercial Marketing backgrounds.
Having worked with the business and developed their teams at Exec – Senior Manager lefor a number of years, Allexo were referred internally and appointed by the Executive Talent Director to lead the search.
The Process & Result
Working through the Allexo Process, we spent time with all relevant stakeholders to ensure they were aligned internally at the start of the process, and created a timeline for the search and the interview process ahead, working on a project basis.
We mapped out the 3 key talent pools and covered the market thoroughly through headhunting, referrals and our database, and introduced a shortlist of 9 qualified profiles – 3 from each talent pool. Following introductory 30 minute interviews, they made a decision to continue their focus on two of the talent pools and we revised our search to ensure we were covering every candidate accessible in the market.
Following a further 4 profiles being added to the shortlist, 3 candidates were progressed through the process with 2 at the end of the process who they were interested in extending offers to.
The process (start to offer) was completed in 6 weeks. The preferred candidate joined the business from L’Oréal, and has since built and developed a high performing team of Commercial Brand Executive and Managers for the division.
