March 2018
National Account Manager
Reports to: Managing Director
Location: London office EC2A 3LT
Commitment: 5 days per week
Liberation Foods CIC is a Fair Trade nut company supplying UK multiples and a range of other customers with (branded and private label) retail and bulk nut products.
Liberation has a vision of ‘A world in which smallholder farmers can enjoy secure and sustainable livelihoods and plan for the future’.
Our mission is ‘To strengthen and empower the families and communities of our shareholder smallholder nut producers by building profitable, successful markets for their nuts’
See Liberation brand framework 2015
Overall job purpose
Manage key national accounts and develop and drive new sales opportunities in UK and overseas. Work with colleagues to develop and implement strategy to achieve long term sustainable sales growth and build the Liberation brand.
Key responsibilities
•Manage day to day running of key national and international accounts including Tesco, Sainsbury and Waitrose to drive profitable growth and handle commercial negotiations.
•Follow up on existing leads and identify and develop new leads to include, for example, opportunities to open up new distribution channels in export, health and leisure, food service/out of home, convenience, speciality food wholesalers.
•Develop and track KPIs for sales
•Devise and implement plan to bring in new customers in existing channels e.g.
smaller/growth supermarkets, travel retail
•Ensure all customer accounts are profitable; track sales daily/weekly and identify risks and opportunities
•‘Own’ annual sales forecast for use in financial and purchase planning and update on a regular basis
•Provide commercial input in conjunction with Business Development Manager and Technical Manager to develop and deliver NPD strategy to deliver sales growth
•Provide commercial input to develop Marketing and Communication strategy and plans to ensure that activities support sales strategy
•Keep the team up to date on customer and market issues and requirements and work closely with colleagues to ensure that customer requirements are met on time
•Carry out regular store/retail outlet checks to ensure excellent, up to date category understanding and tracking of Liberation and competitor prices and promotions
•Develop in-depth knowledge and understanding of Liberation’s supply chains which are fully traceable from farmer to pack. This will involve visits to nut origins (e.g. Bolivia, India, Nicaragua, Malawi). Use knowledge to develop selling messages and help to manage annual price negotiations based on new crops.
Skills, Qualifications, Knowledge, Experience
•Minimum 3 years National Account management experience in FMCG food sector and proven success therein
•Commercially savvy with experience of full P&L responsibility for major customer accounts
•Ability to lead, and inspire confidence and enthusiasm in colleagues, customers and other stakeholders
•Strong attention to detail, highly analytical and well organised
•Ability to work in a small team of 8 –flexible approach, collaborate whilst remaining focussed on priorities and tackling obstacles
•Strong negotiation and persuasion skills
•Excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills
•Understanding of and commitment to Fair Trade principles and ideas
•Effective networking skills
•Ability to be proactive, imaginative, passionately positive and determined in identifying and following up new business opportunities