Founded in 2003 by Dong Hyun Kim, his mission was simple, to make fresh and flavorsome sushi and bento available to everyone. Almost 20 years later Wasabi have 40 successful branches across London, other UK major cities and New York. The journey continued in 2019 with the launch of Wasabi Home Bento exclusively into Sainsburys. After several years of great success there, the grocery business expanded launching into Tesco in September 2022. Wasabi has now firmly established itself as the No2 chilled ready meal brand and a driver of significant market growth.

And we’re just getting started. The leadership team have set out their 5 year strategy which encompasses company growth, franchise and international expansion.

Our menu is renowned for its distinctiveness, freshness and flavour. The cold food range of sushi, pokes and salads are made fresh daily in our branch kitchens and our hot bento, noodle bowls and soups offer an indulgent and comforting alternative to our broad and democratic demographic.

As we prepare for our next phase of growth and innovation, we have an incredibly exciting opportunity for a Restaurant Marketing Manager to join our Marketing Team based in Park Royal.

The Role:

This role will be instrumental in helping deliver our priorities for growth – driving awareness, acquisition and conversion across our Restaurant business, helping build a trusted and loved brand, and targeting the right strategies and tactics for successful like for like restaurant sales growth based on changing customer behaviours.

The role is part of the Restaurant Leadership Team and will work very closely with the Restaurant Business Unit function and manage and develop all current and future sales and marketing activity.

Key Responsibilities:

Support the Marketing Director in developing a consumer and commercial focused 3 Year Restaurant Marketing plan
Understand the marketing and company’s commercial KPI’s and create an appropriate strategy and tactics to meet them
Manage the Restaurant Marketing budgets
Lead the development, internal approval, and execution of the annual Restaurant Marketing Calendar
Support the Food Team in the development of a robust NPD pipeline, based on clear market and customer insight, and deliver flawless marketing execution in support of this activity
Own all creative and packaging design development for Restaurants, working closely with our in-house Design team
Partner with our Customer Services team to transform data into actionable insight, that leads to positive shifts in customer experience
Lead Delivery as a channel, driving additional transactions and average spend
Lead all planned and ad hoc Restaurant research projects, providing insights to the Restaurant Business Unit and across the business
Lead all media campaigns, from brief to analysis of media performance and ROIs
Lead the strategy and planning of tactical Digital Marketing campaigns, evaluating performance and driving continuous improvement in how we support our Restaurant business
Partner with our Grocery Marketing Manager to ensure synergy across plans and executions
Support our Digital marketing agency to define our 2025+ Digital and Social strategy & execution plans
Ensure strong cross departmental communication and stakeholder management to gain business alignment on all plans
Track and evaluate all activity to drive continuous improvement and growth
Inspire stakeholders to engage and buy in to your plans
Foster a sense of one team and ensure all relevant team stakeholders are aligned

Our Requirements:

We are looking for a highly motivated, proven Restaurant Marketing Manager, with a record of driving sales via the delivery of impactful brand campaigns, inspired by customer and commercial insight.

Relevant, proven experience in Quick Service Retail / Casual Dining
Ability to demonstrate genuine initiative, drive and ownership
Outstanding organisational ability and project management experience, attention to detail
Strong commercial awareness and financial acumen
Comfort and experience working in a fast paced and changing working environment
Significant experience in managing agencies (creative, media and research) and in-house teams to create consumer focused, integrated marketing campaigns
Experience in the development of critical time paths for timely delivery of all activity
Be customer obsessed and analytical: experience in translating qualitative and quantitative customer data into insights and actions
Ability to think big and engage teams to activate campaigns in innovative ways
Demonstrate an ability to work collaboratively, building validated working relationships both internally (e.g. Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, Food Development, and Operations) and externally with agencies
Enthusiastic and collaborative team player
Good knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint

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
Hybrid working model
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!

Wasabi Sushi & Bento jobs

Marketing Manager