James Darby

Owned and delivered new-to-market product development across a national portfolio, operating within a highly complex ecosystem of retailers, suppliers, and internal teams.

• Identified and executed near-term commercial opportunities through product innovation, category reviews, and partner collaboration, delivering material in-year revenue growth.
• Led idea generation and concept development for new products, including workshops with internal teams and retail partners to validate demand, feasibility, and differentiation.
• Owned end-to-end delivery of a 33-SKU dual-brand product launch across 340+ locations, achieving 107% sales uplift ($600k) and 194% unit growth within 6 months.
• Scoped, tested, and refined product concepts through in-market pilots, using sell-out data and partner feedback to optimise propositions post-launch.
• Developed business cases and launch plans covering pricing, volumes, margins, investment, and risk to support internal decision making.
• Partnered closely with product, operations, supply chain, finance, legal, and external suppliers to manage dependencies and ensure on-time, high-quality delivery.
• Acted as the primary interface between commercial, technical, and execution teams, translating requirements into prioritised actions.
• Delivered executive-ready materials to support product approvals, ranging decisions, and investment cases.

Foundry-relevant strengths:
Product innovation · Ecosystem delivery · Business case ownership · Matrix influence · In-market validation

Functioned as a regional product owner for consumer product initiatives, bridging global R&D and local market execution.

• Supported development and launch of new products and range refreshes in partnership with global product and R&D teams.
• Led customer and partner insight generation to inform product positioning, value propositions, and launch priorities.
• Delivered multi-market GTM execution across national retail partners.
• Acted as Interim Sales Manager (NZ), driving 13% sales growth and securing strategic range placement — demonstrating strong commercial and stakeholder influence.

• Built a national 18‑month marketing calendar improving campaign consistency and delivery.
• Led national and local campaigns; Yum Cha NPD contributed to 6.5% category growth.
• Directed local area marketing projects achieving 10.61% sales uplift and 9.4% increase in guest count.
• Managed national campaign budgets, media buying, and channel planning.