Managing Director | Hyper Growth e-commerce Tech Scale-Up | London

The Business

Harmonic are delighted to be working on a Retained basis with LloydsDirect (formerly known as Echo), one of the UK's most exciting scale-ups disrupting the pharmacy sector. Having designed and built their own technology platform, their goal is to simplify the customer experience of NHS prescriptions, and provide patients with seamless access to prescription delivery.

Initially founded in 2015 by a leadership team including ex-HelloFresh early joiners with a vision of harnessing technology to find a better way of ordering and collecting their medicine, they grew into an 'online pharmacy' delivering prescriptions to thousands of customers for free.

In 2019 they joined the LloydsPharmacy family diversifying into an omni channel model and have seen growth of over 1000% in the last 17 months. Truly one of the country's fastest growing scale[1]ups achieving £100m Turnover in 2020 and supported by the sudden shift at the beginning of the pandemic to online/ e-commerce sources, LloydsDirect now have 600,000 customers and are aiming to achieve £500m Turnover in the next 5 years.

Last month LloydsPharmacy's parent company McKesson announced the sale of the business to Aurelius Private Equity in a £477m deal which saw them acquire LloydsDirect, over 1000 pharmacies and multiple digital platforms including the Online Doctor service with a commitment to growing the service offering patients access to both Digital and 'bricks & mortar' services.

Ultimately this represents an exciting opportunity for LloydsDirect in supporting their expansion to £500m Turnover given the massive scope to rapidly accelerate customer acquisition by utilising an already loyal customer base across some of the other businesses in the portfolio in a sector where still only a fraction of the population uses online pharmacies.

Culture & Team

LloydsDirect (formerly known as Echo) retain significant autonomy and a real start-up feel. Based in the start-up hub of Shoreditch in London (with their distribution facility in West London), the team is filled with bright, ambitious colleagues.

The Senior Leadership Team is currently 100% female, very culturally down-to-earth and the business retains a flat structure. The Managing Director will bring real strategic vision and guidance to the team and business while retaining that start-up entrepreneurial spirt and willingness to get their hands dirty.

The Role

The Managing Director will be replacing some of the Founding team and ensuring that the business delivers on its huge potential. Developing the LloydsDirect strategy (and crucially delivering on the execution of that strategy), The Managing Director will be tasked with driving the business forward to the next level of it's development.

• As a member of the McKesson UK Senior Leadership team successfully developing the LloydsDirect strategy reporting to the McKesson Chief Digital & Marketing Officer and working closely with the CEO and Private Equity Investors.

• Act as a Leader, effectively shaping and communicating the LloydsDirect vision to build and improve more effective and purposeful teams.

• Drive world-class Digital Marketing and digital Product Design strategy to acquire and attract new customers to the platform.

• Management and Leadership of the LloydsDirect Senior Leadership Team (CFO, CMO, CTO, HRD, Operations Director).

• Mentor and develop talented 'up and coming' leaders in the business.

• Grow the core prescription delivery business efficiently and optimizing cost without compromising on patient safety standards.

• Lead the business through the exploration and launch of higher margin offerings

• Drive collaboration between LloydsDirect and other businesses in the Lloyds family to realise economies of scale, improved customer experience and customer acquisition.

• Deliver improved cost efficiencies from an Operational perspective looking at ways to improve supply chain and warehousing.

  Required Experience:

• Dynamic Leader with Entrepreneurial flair.

• Fantastic communicator creating and explaining the 'vision' during periods of change.

• Demonstrable track record taking a business through rapid growth

• Demonstrable track record delivering Digital Marketing Strategies to drive customer acquisition.

• Experience building, leading and improving high performing teams.

• Excellent stakeholder management skills.

• Enjoys working in a fast-paced environment

Bonus Experience:

• Experience working in a VC or PE Backed Start-Up or Scale-Up.
• Experience in the Tech or Healthcare industry.
• Omni-channel experience.

Salary: Negotiable + Bonus + share options

Location: London Start Date: ASAP

Please contact for more information.

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