Production Manager

Innocent wants to make it easier for people to live well through the goodness of fruit and vegetables. At The Blender, its fully electric Rotterdam factory, that mission fills over three hundred million bottles a year. After years of building and scaling processes, the foundation is in place. Now, the focus shifts to stepping up. The Production Manager leads that next chapter.

About Innocent

Innocent was founded in 1999 with a simple but powerful mission: to make delicious drinks that are good for people and the planet. It all started in London, where the founders handed out homemade smoothies at a music festival and asked people if they should quit their day jobs to pursue their dream. The answer was a resounding yes. Today, innocent – now part of the Coca-Cola family – has grown into one of Europe’s most loved brands in healthy drinks.

In 2021, innocent opened its own factory, ‘the Blender’, in Rotterdam. This isn’t just any factory – it’s a fully electric, carbon-neutral facility, and a proud symbol of sustainable progress and creative energy. Here, a team of 280 people produces and packs the majority of innocent’s drinks, with care for both quality and the planet. As a proud B Corp, the organization donates ten percent of its annual profits to charity. Since its founding, that’s meant more than twenty million euros donated and over a million lives positively touched.

The energy and drive to make an impact are felt across the organization. The company’s culture shines through its five core values – commercial, responsible, natural, open-minded, and committed. This warm culture is one of innocent’s key differentiators and is continuously nurtured and reinforced.

Vacancy: Production Manager

After years of building, commissioning, and scaling up, the foundations at The Blender are rock solid. Production is running, supported by world-class technology. A new chapter has begun – one where the focus shifts from setting up to stepping up: improving processes, raising performance, and embedding operational excellence. For a Production Manager, this is an opportunity to make a tangible impact in a factory that’s as ambitious and forward-thinking as the brand itself.

The Production Manager oversees filling and packaging line operations – one of the company’s two main production areas. Leading a team of five Area Shift Leads, an Operations Coordinator, and a Labor Planner, the role brings direction and structure to operations that run around the clock. The focus is on turning insight into impact: using data to steer daily performance, strengthening lean ways of working, and helping each shift deliver to the same consistent standards. Through steady coaching and clear expectations, teams grow in confidence and ownership, delivering stronger results day by day. Over time, this creates a culture where continuous improvement becomes second nature.

The challenge and excitement lie in leading change through people. The team is ready for a leader who can guide them on a data-driven journey towards operational excellence. Collaboration is key, not only among shifts but also across functions such as Engineering, Quality, Planning, Finance, and HR. As part of the Blender Leadership Team, the Production Manager shapes both daily performance and long-term progress, ensuring that safety, quality, delivery and cost goals are achieved in a way that stays true to innocent’s values and culture.

Success in this role means teams that run smoothly and take full ownership of their dashboards and improvement routines. Lean tools are fully embedded, from line efficiency to OEE metrics, creating consistent ways of working that connect five shifts into one cohesive operation. The factory runs with a steadier rhythm, where performance is refined, and efficiency takes priority over raw volume.

“If you love seeing modern manufacturing at its best – cutting-edge technology and passionate people working together – you’ll feel right at home here. The Blender is a place where people genuinely enjoy what they do, thrive on collaboration, and are driven by results, leading through strong core values.” – Maeve Lynch, Site Director (Chief Blender)

For an experienced operations leader, this is a stage unlike any other. The person who will thrive here brings both technical depth and natural people leadership, balancing data‑driven decisions with an instinct for building strong, motivated teams. It’s an opportunity to turn operational excellence into a living reality in one of Europe’s most sustainable production environments.

Interested?

Innocent is working with Top of Minds to fill this vacancy.
To express your interest, please contact Emma de Wit at emma.dewit@topofminds.com