Head of Business Development Belgium

Bloomon is the first company to build an international consumer brand in a market that has been around for ages: flowers. Since the launch, less than four years ago, the e-company is growing exponentially. Bloomon is quickly expanding across Europe and plans to become a global player. The company raised capital to fund these ambitions. The Head of Business Development has a key role in realizing the growth plans, by further conquering the Belgian market.

BLOOMON: EVERYDAY HAPPINESS

Bloomon is an online flower service that is revolutionizing the flower industry. It is the first florist to operate solely online. Bloomon developed a high-tech and creative platform where people can pick the size (small, medium or large), the delivery moment (during the day or in the evening) and the frequency (weekly, biweekly or monthly). With bloomon it’s that easy to get a fresh and unique flower arrangement delivered to your door whenever you want.

Bloomon creates unique flower arrangements from seasonal collections. Their flowers are of the highest quality and as fresh as they get. To bring that quality and freshness bloomon developed a much faster and more efficient supply chain. For example, the company doesn’t buy at auctions or wholesalers – like most florists – but directly from growers.

LIGHTNING SPEED GROWTH

Launched in 2014, bloomon went from startup to scale-up incredibly fast. The number of customers grows with more than 100 percent annually. They currently employ about 90 people, have three office locations (Amsterdam, Paris, and Berlin) and are active in six countries: The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, United Kingdom, France and Denmark.

But that’s merely the beginning. The company has set out to first conquer Europe and then the world. They will keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and further evolve the market. To finance these highly ambitious plans, bloomon raised over 25 million from some of Europe’s leading venture capitalists among which Partech Ventures and Fortino Capital.

SELL FLOWERS LIKE A BOSS

A scale-up with such an astounding growth trajectory can not go unnoticed. Both domestic and international media picked up on the story. The Financial Times even called bloomon the Netflix of flowers. In 2016 WIRED listed bloomon amongst the hottest startups in Europe and the company came in second in the 2017 Tech5 Awards. Bloomon is not only praised for its business performance. The company combines results with an environmentally friendly way of working. In a traditional brick-and-mortar florist, flowers stand around for up to three days and, if not sold, are thrown out. A huge stream of waste that bloomon avoids completely. On top of that, bloomon aligns their designs with harvesting schedules and does ten percent of their deliveries by bike.

“We spread happiness to our customers and to our employees. We hire only highly talented people, from diverse international backgrounds. We do our best to support all different interests and hobbies. We want our people to feel at home. Our offices are very dynamic, flexible and entrepreneurial. We strive for the best, and make sure to have fun together at our social events and Friday drinks.” – Patrick Hurenkamp, Founder & CEO

VACANCY: HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT BELGIUM

The Head of Business Development Belgium is positioned at the center of bloomon’s growth and expansion. Being successful in the Belgian market is key in the company’s international expansion strategy. The goal for the Head of Business Development is to turn bloomon into a household brand and put flowers in every house.

Belgium poses an interesting challenge. The Dutch-speaking part of Belgium and the French-speaking part are culturally quite distinctive. On top of that the Head of Business Development has to deal with Belgians not being as used to shopping online as some other Europeans are.

GROW THE CUSTOMER BASE

The Head of Business Development finds new, creative and smart ways to grow the customer base in Belgium. He/she comes up with ways to make sales channels quicker, easier and more effective, and develops and executes new exciting initiatives. Part of the role is managing media channels like printed media – e.g. advertisements, advertorials, and direct mail – and television. To maximize impact the Head of Business Development budgets, plans and optimizes a six-figure annual marketing budget and improves the growth strategy for Belgium by applying data-driven learnings.

Cooperation is a key part of the work. Internally the Head of Business Development works together with all other departments, for example, sales, brand, production, operations and CRM. He/she also works with colleagues from other markets to share best practices and learn from each other’s approach. Externally he/she builds new strategic partnerships through which bloomon can grow its customer base and increase its brand awareness.

“The Head of Business Development Belgium has to combine creative skills with solid business know-how. He or she will get a lot of freedom and responsibility. The variety of activities is huge. Someone has to chase, negotiate and close deals, build and manage a small team and optimize sales processes. You have to be able to switch from details to the big picture, think strategically and operationally.” – Reinoud Haal, Global Head of Growth

Candidate’s profile

EXPERIENCE

• Academic degree
• 3 to 6 years of work experience in business development, strategy consulting or sales
• Startup experience is a plus
• Fluent in Dutch and French (speech and writing)

PERSONALITY

• Can do
• Pro-active
• Negotiator
• Analytical
• Enthusiastic
• Results oriented
• Strategic