Private Label Manager

Private Label Manager

(Fulltime – 38 hours per week)

As Private Label Manager at Action, you take ownership of one of our strongest competitive advantages: our private label portfolio. 

At Action, packaging is not just execution, it is a key commercial driver. It is what stops customers in-store, tells the product story in seconds and drives conversion at scale. With thousands of products and artworks flowing through our business every year, you bring sharp thinking, structure and speed to a fast-growing private label ecosystem.

You combine a passion for product, packaging and design with a strong commercial mindset. You understand how to translate product quality into compelling shelf presence and how to turn private label into a true growth engine across Europe.

Reporting into the Head of Brand & Strategy, you work at the heart of buying, marketing, quality, sustainability, design and agency collaboration. You understand what it takes to bring a private label product from briefing to shelf, balancing speed, creativity, quality, brand consistency and commercial impact. 

This is a role for someone who likes to build. Our private label approach is developing fast, and you will play a key role in creating processes, improving ways of working and building a future-ready private label organization. You combine business understanding with creativity, structure and resilience, always keeping the customer, the product and the shelf impact in mind.

This is your daily action

In this role, you develop and drive the strategic private label plan for Action, ensuring that our own labels and brands continue to grow as one of our most important differentiators, with ambitions that go beyond the shelf. We aim to create private label products and packaging that set a new benchmark for value retail: work that earns industry recognition and competes for the most prestigious packaging and design awards in the market.

• You follow market, retail, packaging and design developments closely and translate these insights into concrete plans for Action. You understand what makes a product stand out on the shelf, how artwork supports the product story and how strong private label execution can increase customer preference and sales.
• You work closely with Buying to set up clear product briefings and translate these into strong concepts together with design agencies and internal stakeholders. 
• You have a strong fascination for retail packaging and shelf impact. You understand how design, materials, structure and storytelling come together in the few seconds a customer makes a choice. You continuously challenge how our products show up on shelf: clearer, more attractive, more distinctive and more commercial.
• You guide the development of concepts, brands and packaging from idea to execution, ensuring quality, consistency, commercial relevance and speed to market. 
• You lead a team of 10 people, including 3 colleagues based in Hong Kong
• You lead packaging design development with a clear point of view. You ensure our packaging is not only on-brand, but visibly stronger than competitors on shelf, recognizable, attractive and commercially effective. You challenge agencies and stakeholders to push for better, simpler and more impactful design solutions.
• You oversee a large and fast-moving artwork flow, working with structure and discipline in an environment where thousands of artworks are developed every year. You manage roadmaps, KPIs, timelines and progress, making sure priorities are clear, agreements are followed and products can reach the shelf as quickly and effectively as possible.
• You build strong relationships with key stakeholders across Buying, Quality, Marketing, Sustainability, Hubs and external partners. 
• You are comfortable navigating different interests, priorities and levels of complexity, and you know how to influence, align and move people forward.
• You manage agency relationships and partner networks, including setting up agreements and ensuring that external partners deliver with the right level of quality, creativity, pace and cost awareness, staying on top of developing and expanding the agency network and continuously innovate
• You actively look for ways to improve how we work. You make proposals for efficient and effective working methods with the least possible complexity and implement these in a pragmatic way.
• You monitor private label performance and sales, actively identifying opportunities to grow product groups and strengthen Action’s own brand portfolio. 
• You stimulate and challenge buying teams to further develop private labels, while protecting Action’s key USPs: goodstrong quality, commercial and attractive design and the right price-quality balance.

As the business continues to grow, you help professionalize the private label way of working, implement new processes and build a stronger foundation for the future.

Meet your team

With tens of millions of fans across Europe, we keep surprising them week after week. We are constantly expanding the Action brand using a data-driven approach and by working in agile teams. In Marketing and Format we are responsible for the marketing and communication strategy and its execution. We are building more and more digital visibility and interaction. From customer surveys to creating content in our own Action Studio, and from private labeling to webcare, the app, and social media campaigns. Our biggest challenge is One Breath, One Format, online and in more than 3,300 stores in 15 different countries. Learning new things every day and working with the nicest colleagues to make our popular brand even more successful is what makes us happy. You too?

This is You

• You are a proactive, pragmatic and commercially minded professional with a strong retail background. You understand how private label and artwork execution works, from product briefing and packaging design development to artwork, agency management and shelf execution. 
• You know how to navigate a complex international environment and get things moving
• You combine a good eye for design and brand quality with a practical mindset and strong commercial understanding.
• You are a true people person and a strong stakeholder manager. You enjoy working in a dynamic environment with many different teams, interests and priorities, and you know how to navigate complexity with energy, confidence and pragmatism.
• You bring structure to complexity. With thousands of artworks, multiple stakeholders and fast timelines, you stay organized, focused and calm under pressure. You structure activities and projects clearly, stick to agreements and deliver within deadlines and guidelines.
• You combine a strong commercial acumen with a data-driven approach, able to combine commercial insights with brand thinking and creative judgment. 
• You understand both marketing and buying, and you know how to translate a product story into packaging and artwork that performs in-store.
• You work efficiently and effectively, also under time pressure. 
• You are hands-on, easy-going and collaborative, but also confident enough to challenge and influence when needed. 
• You work well with others to achieve common goals and keep momentum 
• You are ready to strengthen Action’s private label portfolio and help take our own brands to the next level
• You actively steer on performance. You track how private label products perform on shelf and translate insights into concrete actions to improve design, positioning and assortment. You know how better packaging can directly impact sales.

In addition:

• A Bachelor’s degree, preferably in Commercial Economics, Marketing, Business, Retail Management or a related field
• A minimum 10 years of relevant working experience, preferably in Retail brand management, private label, retail marketing, category management or a related commercial role
• Proven experience and understanding in design management and packaging design development
• Experience with private label development, packaging, artwork processes and agency collaboration
• Strong understanding of retail, buying processes and shelf impact
• Commercial mindset with a strong understanding of price, quality, product positioning and customer appeal
• Data-driven and analytical, able to monitor performance and translate insights into action
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, ideally in an international matrix organization
• Highly organized, able to structure activities and projects, stick to agreements and deliver within deadlines and guidelines
• Ability to propose and implement efficient working methods with minimal complexity 
• Strong collaboration skills and the ability to work effectively with others to achieve common targets
• Excellent command of verbal and written communication skills In English 

What we offer

Surprisingly much! From our international headquarters in the Netherlands you have an impact on what happens in our stores across Europe. We welcome more than 22 million customers every week in more than 3,300 stores in 15 European countries. And we have big growth ambitions. For Action and you. Because our growth means that you can always take new steps. A different job, an interesting innovation project, and new skills: as a professional, you can develop without limits. And all this in a culture where our shared values are truly lived: customer focus, teamwork, simplicity, discipline, cost consciousness, and respect. 

Did you know that you can also count on us for:

• A market-based salary based on a 38-hour work week
• An annual bonus based on company and personal performance
• 24 days of holiday and the option to buy 5 extra days (based on 38 hours per week)
• A temporary contract with the intention of offering you a permanent contract in the long term
• Flexible working hours and the possibility of working up to 40% from home, of course in coordination with your team and manager
• 15% staff discount on your purchases at Action 
• A good pension scheme, and a lease car or mobility allowance (Zwaagdijk-Oost is traffic jam-free and only 30 minutes by car from Amsterdam) 

How we contribute to society

If you only know Action from the stores, a world will open up for you when you come and work with us. We work hard to make a positive impact on society and the environment. Did you know, for example, that we support thousands of children worldwide who grow up in an SOS Children's Village? That our team reflects the diversity of our customers, including over 160 different nationalities? That we purchase over 99% of our cocoa, cotton and timber products sustainably? And that all our stores, DC’s and offices only use energy-efficient LED lighting? Yes, that is also Action. Curious about what other initiatives we’re facilitating? There’s a lot more we are proud of and we would love for you to be part of it. 

Interested?

We're proud to be an inclusive employer, and we warmly invite anyone who sees themselves in the vacancy to apply. So take action and respond to this vacancy now!

What happens next:

1. Response to your application within 14 days (and usually earlier)
2. A call with your recruiter 
3. First interview with a manager and a colleague
4. Second interview with more colleagues
5. Welcome to Action

Throughout the process, your recruiter is your permanent point of contact and is available to answer any questions you may have.