It's in the bag
Secondly, he's got a commercial pedigree that's second to none. That's probably why he was headhunted to join European snack giant Intersnack, with annual sales of £1.25bn, in July last year to take its UK business to the next level. Which, in this case, means virtually doubling its sales, which currently stand at more than £80M a year.
According to Robinson, there's no timeline for this vision at least none that he will reveal. "I am single-mindedly focused on getting the business up to the industry average. I have my own milestones in mind, which I don't share with the management team too closely, because I don't want them to get frustrated by how quickly I want to see change."
There are big factors in his favour. He's in the enviable position of joining just as Intersnack's factories in Tanfield Lea, County Durham, Corby, Northamptonshire and Haverhill in Suffolk receive an injection of millions of pounds worth of investment.
The firm is also well positioned for growth, he says. "Intersnack is the second biggest savoury snacks player in Europe, with a 16% share of the market and an 8% share of the branded sector, although in the UK this is just 4%."
Given his job description, it's appropriate that he is someone who is target driven. "To see us hitting milestones that's hugely motivational. It's part of what gets me out of bed in the morning." He also gets a buzz from personal financial goals. "The opportunity to have a nice lifestyle is something I had always wanted."
His background clearly suits the task he has been set. His career started in sales, although by his own admission, its beginnings were inauspicious. "I was selling nuts and bolts to the automotive industry, to garages and workshops. It was really tough and one of the things that motivates me now is the fact that I don't want to go back there."
He dived straight into the grocery industry after that, initiating a professional marketing career at Park Cakes.
From there he took on sales and marketing responsibilities for Radox shampoos and shower gels at Sara Lee.
Six years later he jumped to take on sales and marketing for Gillette, from 1994–1999. This was a period he thoroughly enjoyed. "The male grooming category was exploding and moving into the modern world. The business was growing at 30–40% and still had massive growth potential. The exposure this gave me with a high- profile brand was incredible."
But his wife was expecting their second child and Robinson moved closer to home with a post at Young's Seafood. "Young's was in the middle of turning around the business, but there were consolidation opportunities and the chance to develop the brand to be bigger than Birds Eye." He also helped Young's make the leap into chilled food for the first time.
Business turnaround
However, it was a hard-nosed environment. "I 'd go home sometimes seeing stars in terms of it being such a tough-cultured business, but I progressed my career. I was also fortunate enough to have a small equity stake in the company, so I could see the value generated by brand growth and the business turnaround. I was proud to play a small role in that success. Almost every day was a step forward and I would feel I had learned something."
The next challenge was becoming a commercial director in Northern Foods' UK & Ireland frozen pastry and pizza business, developing brands such as Goodfella's and McDougalls. Improving profitability was a slog, he says, "but we limped along as much as we could while trying to do the best for shareholders and customers".
Then came the bun fight between Greencore and eventual victor Ranjit Boparan to acquire Northern Foods. Five company divisions were being crunched into two and Robinson was caught up in the redundancies. But at that moment, the Intersnack role emerged.
£80M in sales is a fair base from which to start. But given the firm's overall size it does seem to have been ticking along in the UK, rather than opening up the throttle, with a low profile. In fact, Robinson says: "When the headhunter first mentioned Intersnack, I said, 'Intersnack who?' I hadn't heard of it and thought it wasn't very big. But he convinced me to meet him.
"Six weeks later he said I was on the shortlist of candidates and I went to meet the management team in Düsseldorf. From that moment I was hooked. It wasn't about the package. It was the size of the opportunity and the scope of the role that excited me."
At last count the UK snack foods market represented £2.5bn in sales and was growing at about 2.5%, so the size of the prize up for grabs is significant.
Much of Robinson's commercial strategy to capture and grow that market has to do with innovation and he sees plenty of potential. Of the UK business, 80% is composed of retailers' own label and 20% of branded products, so he has both to conjure with.
The ambition is to grow own label and branded sales. Its Pom Bear brand, which was launched in the early 1990s, clocks up sales of just £15M. "That's quite small in brand terms," he says. "It doesn't have a lot of equity with consumers." Until recently the UK brand only existed in ready salted and cheese and onion flavours. But with the roll out of other flavours into major supermarkets as we speak including prawn cocktail and smoky bacon the short-term future looks brighter.
Then there's Intersnack's Penn State brand, which ended 2011 worth £7M. Having been formerly synonymous with pretzels, it has been extended into corn chips in sour cream & jalapeño and buffalo wing flavours and has won listings in Tesco and other supermarkets. There's a new smoky bacon flavour pretzel variant too. "It's growing by 10% year-on-year, but it's not well known and it's not on TV," says Robinson.
Intersnack's Bombay Mix, which was acquired when it bought West Midlands-based Imperial Snack Foods in 2009 and will be made at Haverhill, has also been relaunched as Bollywood Mix. Robinson believes the ethnic foods market offers a lot of opportunity.
With all this activity, it's easy to see why Robinson believes the firm can wrestle market share from the likes of PepsiCo's Walker's Crisps and United Biscuits brands including Phileas Fogg, Hula Hoops and KP.
He believes Intersnack's private ownership gives him more freedom to formulate a winning strategy. "It's not beholden to the City, venture capitalists or banks, which add pressure and lead you to make decisions that aren't necessarily right for the long term." In addition, the business lends a lot of autonomy to its national bosses, rather than insisting on a pan-European approach.
At this stage, Robinson aims to dedicate three or four days a month to travelling around the country and strengthening relationships with retail customers. "I never come back from a customer meeting feeling deflated, even if I get a rejection. You see the potential and know you can do better. In my earlier career I learned to mitigate failures and put them to one side. And being able to motivate people to see positive rather than negative ways forward also helps you become more positive."
Teamwork
He takes the view that a good boss is only as good as his team so, since he joined, he has been selecting his core lieutenants carefully. That includes Haverhill general manager Louise Mortlock, appointed this year, who has extensive factory management experience at different companies, including chilled food firm Bakkavör.
His support for others is repaid in kind, he says. He doesn't just rely on his own ideas to inspire strategy. Not only are his staff a source of inspiration, but so are his daughter, Chloe, and son, Nicholas, aged 12. "At 16, my daughter will ask me why I don't do this or that."
Family means a lot to Robinson. He was brought up as an only child, but his parents instilled family values in him from an early age. Demands on his time now may be tight, but he says: "I do say it's important to have a good work/life balance. I spend a lot of time away from home, but I try to spend one night a week, plus weekends, with my family in Yorkshire. My wife, Angela, works very hard looking after the family, which is a full-time job in itself."
