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About the Company

With a passion for great coffee, Pilot Coffee Roasters was founded in 2009 with the goal of introducing specialty coffee to Toronto. With its first location and original roastery located in Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood, Pilot was built around its core values of sourcing ethical, Direct Trade coffee and building transparency in the process from farm to cup.

Pilot operated as a specialty café and roastery, supplying coffee, equipment, training, technical support, and consulting services for new café owners across Canada. Two years later, a second café was opened on the Ossington strip in Toronto’s west end, and by 2013, having outgrown the original location, the roastery operations moved to its current headquarters at 50 Wagstaff Drive.

Pilot’s dedication to quality, education and state-of-the-art facilities propelled it to earn a number of accolades over the last 12 years including a place on the GROWTH 500 list (Canada’s fastest-growing companies), several design awards, and achieving Great Place to Work Certification. With a growing presence in Toronto’s specialty coffee scene came new and exciting opportunities. More cafés were opened in Toronto’s downtown core, new Direct Trade partnerships were developed, a cold brew production department was introduced, quickly establishing Pilot Cold Brew™ as a leader
in the category, and a growing eCommerce presence emerged.

Pilot Coffee Roasters is a full-service roastery, wholesaler and cafe operator with multiple locations across Toronto. Pilot’s coffee can be purchased directly on its online store, at one of its own branded cafés, through its extensive wholesale partner network across Canada, or in a growing number of specialty grocery stores.

As the company has grown and evolved, so too has its consumer and wholesale partner’s needs. In 2021 Pilot released new sustainable and fully bilingual packaging to better align with the company’s values and developed a virtual coffee education platform so that customers can continue to expand their skills and coffee knowledge. Pilot’s passion for great coffee and commitment to quality remains at the heart of everything it does.

Scope of the Position

Leading a dynamic and highly motivated organization with a passionate and loyal customer base through its next stage of growth and expansion will be the role of the Chief Executive Officer. Working with the Board of Directors, the Chief Executive Officer will provide leadership in establishing and executing upon a vision and strategy that leverages the company’s positioning and market opportunity to drive revenue growth while delivering operational excellence.

The successful candidate will bring a driving, hands-on, ‘lead from the front’ management style while nurturing a highly collaborative, values-based culture.

This is an outstanding opportunity to make a lasting impact with a highly regarded brand and exciting growth prospects.

Functional Tasks

• Work with the Board of Directors and members of the senior management team (SLT) to refine the strategic and operating plans and priorities.
• Work with the Board of Directors and members of the SLT to implement and execute the strategic plan, including, focusing the company’s market growth plans, build organizational capacity, expanding market penetration, enhancing competitive positioning, driving partner development and overall strategic roadmap.
• Oversee the day-to-day operations of the company to ensure the timely implementation and execution of the business and financial plans.
• Architect the organization ensuring that it has in place the human resources, processes, and operational capabilities by which to scale and the corporate culture to outperform.
• Drive sustainable revenue growth along existing revenue channels, including, retail, wholesale, CPG and eCommerce. Evaluate and assess ROE for each revenue channel and determine appropriate investment mix.
• Maintain, improve, create senior level relationships with existing and potential customers, strategic partners, and other stakeholders.
• Provide ongoing direction, performance management and developmental support to the team. Continue to improve and develop ‘best practice’ capabilities.
• Focus the team to accelerate and drive the growth in revenues, new product and market development, sector leadership and profitability.
• Ensure operational milestones are met on time, with high quality and that they meet the cost objectives that are established.
• Remain abreast of the industry, competitors, and trends with a view to ensuring that all investment opportunities are considered and the most attractive pursued.
• Lead the expansion of the company business and brand into new markets. Engage with strategic stakeholders in those markets.
• Report regularly and proactively to the board of directors on results and plans going forward.
• Articulate a vision for the company internally that motivates staff and continues to build world-class capabilities.
• Ensure that appropriate systems and processes are in place and continuously monitored and refined to capture relevant data allowing the business to drive better analytical capabilities and more insightful and timely decisions.
• Adapt business model to capitalize on evolving customer needs and new competitive offerings. Drive the product vision to evolve the customer experience.

Key Performance Deliverables

• In light of the identified responsibilities, the following are specific deliverables that the position is designed to achieve.
• Leadership effectiveness as measured by eNPS and employee turnover
• Quarterly profitability as measured by EBITDA
• KPIs including growth in operating cashflows, ROE and revenue growth
• Other deliverables as may be determined

Competency Profile

The following competencies listed below define the role of Chief Executive Officer at Pilot Coffee Roasters:

Strategic Approach
Develops a strategic plan to realize the vision. Revises strategy in light of changing circumstances. Takes a long-term view of organizational success. Works to clarify long term organizational goals. Able to stand back from immediate
problems in order to focus on more far-reaching ideas.

Leading Change
Recognizes when change is necessary; Challenges the status quo and champions new initiatives; Acts as a catalyst to change and stimulates others to change; Develops an effective action plan to implement change and monitors results.

Commercial Acumen
Applies appropriate commercial and financial principles; Understands situations in terms of costs, profits, added value and return on investment; Appreciates the commercial impact of own work on the organization’s total expenses and revenues.

Impact
Makes an immediate positive impression upon others. Has presence and commands respect. Comes across with force and quickly establishes credibility. Accurately predicts the effects of own words and actions. Makes an immediate positive impression upon others.

Motivating
Encourages others by creating enthusiasm, a feeling of investment and a desire to excel; Inspires a healthy attitude to work by recognizing positive contributions.

Visioning
Imagines future possibilities; Thinks broadly and investigates a wide range of alternatives in developing a vision for the future; Selects the most promising vision from a range of alternatives and communicates this vision to others.

Results Oriented
Focuses strongly on achieving agreed upon outcomes and ensures that key objectives are met; Conveys a sense of urgency and drives issues to closure; Aims to improve upon past performance; Establishes aggressive personal targets and strives to achieve them.

Preferred Experience and Education

The following indicates specific industry, academic and functional experience/qualifications that are important to the successful achievement of the identified responsibilities and performance deliverables:

• 10+ years of senior leadership experience with bachelor’s or advanced degree and ideally an MBA.
• Strategically minded, inspirational leader with exceptional communication and interpersonal skills and willingness to lead by example.
• Ability to anticipate the future concerning market dynamics, organizational structure and roles required to support the next phase of growth and scale.
• A collaborative management style that leverages the strengths of the team while stretching and motivating them in attaining breakthrough results.
• Characterized by a sense of urgency and a proactive mindset with an ability to navigate complexities of a changing, competitive landscape.
• Experience in areas of fundraising, corporate development and mergers and acquisitions is a definite asset.
• Analytically driven with a proven track-record of growing a P&L; ability to lead budgeting and create action plans with clear objectives and timelines for achieving them.
• Experience with corporate governance and working with a Board of Directors.

Remuneration & Benefits

• Highly competitive compensation package structured to the needs of the successful candidate.

DIVERSITY, INCLUSION
Pilot Coffee Roasters is committed to building and fostering an environment where everyone feels included, valued and heard. We aim to provide a barrier free experience for those looking to join our team and we welcome and encourage applications from people with disabilities, Indigenous peoples, racialized people, people from gender and sexually diverse communities and / or people with intersectional identities. Accommodations are available on request for people taking part in aspects of the recruitment process. People requiring accommodation(s) during the recruitment process, can notify their recruiter directly.

If interested, please contact:

StoneWood Group
Sal Rocco
[email protected]