Marketing Director

Wasabi Sushi and Bento

Founded in 2003 Wasabi’s vision is to lovingly create and serve delicious Asian food for a busy nation.

Wasabi now has 40 thriving restaurants across London and major UK cities and 4 in New York and in 2019, we introduced Wasabi Home Bento to 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 growthand 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 Marketing Director to join our Marketing Team based in Park Royal.

The Role:

This is a key role in Wasabi s growth strategy to double the size of the business in the next five years. The Marketing Director will oversee our brand building activity with focus on driving penetration and conversion in our 40-strong UK restaurant business and through our grocery partners. The successful candidate will shape the overall strategy to build on Wasabi s credentials to become a trusted and loved brand.

The role will lead a team responsible for the development and delivery of all current and future propositions and marketing activity to achieve our growth ambitions and drive commercial success. They will partner with the Food Team to bring customer insight to our menu development and ensure we capitalise on trends in the QSR and grocery markets.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and evolve the Wasabi brand vision, personality and values to inform our creative strategy, visual identity and tone of voice. Act as the guardian to ensure consistent representation of our brand throughout the customer journey
• Develop and implement the three-year brand strategy aligning across our restaurant and grocery businesses and driving synergies where possible
• Oversee a robust and data-led process for reviewing marketing activity to drive continuous improvement in ROI
• Lead a cross-functional team to drive restaurant like-for-like sales growth, maximising transaction value through alignment of marketing activity, product availability and in-restaurant customer experience
• Bring customer and trend insight to the food development process, partnering with the food and commercial teams to capitalize on opportunities whilst maintaining alignment to our brand promise
• Champion sustainability and that ESG considerations are applied to marketing activity, product development and packaging decisions
• Lead a cross-functional team on packaging design and development alongside the Procurement and Food teams
• Source and develop new product or sales channel opportunities and drive them through to compelling customer propositions, working closely with the Restaurant Operations teams
• Support the successful opening of equity owned restaurants and any co-marketing activity for franchise partnerships
• Define and implement Wasabi s PR and social strategy to develop a balanced and broad dialogue with our customers and the wider public. Optimise both business (LinkedIn) and social (TikTok, Instagram etc) channels
• Oversee our agency and supplier partnerships to ensure return on investment and adherence to our service levels and impact
• Lead the pricing strategy for restaurants menus – executing pricing and promotional changes and evaluating performance and impact
• Develop and implement a Restaurant commercial playbook and lead a cross-functional working group to establish local restaurant marketing strategy and establish a local vs centrally managed approach
• Partner with Area Managers to develop an understanding in operations about sales drivers and how operational teams can maximise sales and brand perception
• Lead merchandising optimization and range reviews to maximise transaction value, alongside the Operations & Food teams
• Maintain a climate that attracts, retains and motivates a high performing team

Our Requirements:

The ideal candidate for this role will be a commercial marketing leader with extensive experience of driving results in QSR, retail or hospitality environment, alongside solid

exposure to FMCG. They should demonstrate the ability to balance short-term sales driving activity whilst balancing long-term brand development. Candidates should be educated to degree level, ideally with a post graduate Marketing qualification.

They will also need to demonstrate:

• Strategic thinking with a passion for working in a dynamic, fast-paced environment
• Data literacy with the ability to speak to the numbers
• Strong commercial acumen and financial literacy, with a solid understanding of business drivers and the ability to evaluate campaign performance and ROI
• Experience in developing, managing and working within budgets
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and thrives on building strong working relationships. Able to build trust and credibility across the business
• A track record of building creative and ground-breaking marketing campaigns and well-versed in understanding current trends on social and digital
• Excellent leadership capabilities with the ability to build a high-performing and engaged team

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
• 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!