A leading beverage manufacturing and product development company is looking for an experienced Senior Juice Production Consultant with strong expertise in juice formulation, processing technologies, and New Product Development (NPD). The consultant will assist in sourcing juice concentrate blends from South African suppliers and support multi-stage project deliverables aligned to a new production facility based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Responsibilities:

• Conduct joint market visits and competitive benchmarking across South Africa and Kenya.

• Analyse raw material availability, packaging gaps, pricing, and market positioning.

• Develop a proposed product portfolio (juice blends, smoothies, wellness shots, etc.) with processing method recommendations and gross margin analysis.

• Provide complete machinery and equipment lists, including capacities, specifications, tentative BOM, budget ranges, and vendor recommendations.

• Support sourcing, purchasing, RFQ preparation, and vendor evaluations.

• Lead recipe formulation, pilot batch development, sensory feedback sessions, and accelerated shelf-life testing.

• Draft SOPs, product data sheets, and formulation documentation.

• Produce a full factory setup plan covering layout, utilities, equipment specs, CAPEX/OPEX estimates, and workflow design.

• Oversee installation, commissioning, and initial operations, including trial production runs.

• Finalise SOPs, QC systems, HACCP requirements, and staff training programmes.

• Support pre-launch readiness, commercial batch rollout, and post-launch performance monitoring.

Requirements:

• Extensive experience in juice production, processing technologies, or beverage NPD.

• Strong background in product formulation, pilot testing, and shelf-life optimisation.

• Solid understanding of juice manufacturing equipment, utilities, and factory workflows.

• Ability to analyse markets, assess raw material viability, and develop profitable product ranges.

• Experience working with PET packaging and ambient-stable formulations advantageous.

• Ability to oversee commissioning, SOP development, QC protocols, and staff training.

• Willingness to travel between South Africa and Kenya for market visits and project stages.

Benefits: