What our people do
Across Hero, we have a number of teams all playing a pivotal role in our overall success.
Sales
From field sales to key accounts, to sales support and data analytics, our sales teams are responsible for maximizing physical availability of our products and nurturing our relationships with our trade customers. Largely a local function, our sales community meets a couple of times a year to share ideas, best practices and sharpen their skills. You could say that this is where the magic happens.
Marketing
We love our stable of international and local brands. They have deep heritage and are bound by a common DNA, which is about getting the best natural and healthy food into the hands of our consumers. We believe that brand ownership should happen at the closest point to the consumer but within a well-defined global framework. Getting the balance right is not always easy, but given our size, all the marketing people know each other so collaboration and communication makes finding this balance that much easier.
Manufacturing
Our Global Supply Chain organization aims to ensure synergies while leaving countries to focus on what they do best. The aim is higher efficiency and harmonized portfolios and products while being agile enough to support local consumer needs. It is also very important that we do this sustainably; continuously reducing our energy and water consumption and improving our CO2 footprint. We employ over 2,000 people in our seven production sites and our manufacturing teams are responsible for the production of our delicious products. Quite a serious bunch, but when it comes to producing high quality baby food, you have to be.
Procurement
Our geographically dispersed procurement team is responsible for buying finished goods, ingredients (e.g., fruits), indirect, packaging. They are an extremely knowledgeable bunch who are very passionate about finding sustainable solutions to the challenges of upstream sourcing and the impact this has on the environment.
Plan & Deliver
The central element in planning is to define a Sales & Operation Plan together with our colleagues from Sales. This is balancing demand and supply including inventory planning based on the demand plan which is converted into a longer-term supply plan and detailed schedule.
The supply plan and the detail schedule are translated into a concrete requirement plan for products and materials, which ultimately results in purchase orders and production orders.
After we have manufactured or purchased goods, we deliver and ship the goods to warehouses or directly to customers.
Quality
It all starts with quality and food safety. Quality resides at the heart of our company culture. For us, Quality is all about happy, healthy consumers. Our team of highly professional quality experts work tirelessly to define and govern the standards that enable each and every one of us to bring our quality values to life and deliver 100% consumer and stakeholder trust. Our Group-wide quality organization generates synergies, speed, and solutions to keep up with today’s rapid pace of change.
Sustainability
Our sustainability commitment is at the center of our Group mission. We have always looked to nature as our partner and feel we need to do even more to drive sustainable change along our value chain. Our sustainability team works closely with all countries and functions to ensure that we deliver on our commitments to people, product, and the planet. Experts in their field are real champions of a better future for all. We are committed to credible and impactful actions across sourcing, manufacturing and marketing with our employees and local communities.
Research & Development
Our R&D team, a global function integrated into the Group’s category-led organization, supports the evolution of natural, sustainable, and healthy foods, and is committed to advancing our Goodness of Nature (GON) mission and creating positive impact in the future of Hero and the planet.
The teams are co-located with our major production hubs and are responsible for designing and developing new innovative concepts for our categories. The Hero Research & Development team partners closely with our consumer insights and category marketing teams, and a global network of external partners from the fields of health and nutrition, and food science and technology. The R&D team is divided into knowledge management, product development, packaging development, and specification management.
Consumer Insights & Analytics
Our consumer insights and analytics function punches way above its weight when it comes to gaining a deep understanding of consumers. They work closely with the category teams to provide foundational consumer understanding, category growth and drivers, and innovation development. They also partner with local markets to provide consumer knowledge (e.g., shopper and consumer knowledge, local go-to-market needs, and brand performance).
Finance & Legal
Our Group Finance team comprises of Controlling and Tax & Treasury. Our local finance teams stay close to the business and deliver controlling, accounting, and general finance administration support. This department also includes Legal & Compliance. who are responsible for navigating the company through issues related to intellectual property, Food law, data protection and contract management.
IT
The global IT team is made up of four competence centers and works closely with our local IT units providing local support to end users and local IT needs. Over the last years the company has made significant investments in upgrading its IT and Digital infrastructure including a cloud-based SAP S4Hanna ERP system. It all sounds a bit dry, but to be honest they are just as focused on growing the company and delighting consumers as the commercial teams.
HR & Corporate Communications
We believe that people are people and should feel free to come to work as themselves. We encourage difference and foster a culture built on our core company values – Create wow, Everyone Hero, Nourish others, and Take responsibility. Our HR team partners with the business to attract, select, and develop the right people for our company. Despite our compelling mission and purpose as a company, we don’t expect our people to work for free, so yes – our HR teams ensure that we also reward them.
Visit our job portal
We are proud of being a big, small family-owned company on a mission to provide our consumers with natural, tasty food. In fact, we think our smaller size is an advantage and appeals to people who thrive in an environment with short reporting lines, and where every individual can make an immediate impact on the company. Join Hero and make your mark!
