Away from Home Sales Leader - 12 month contract

PepsiCo Inc.; Reading; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company tablet and mobile

Company car

Flexible benefits package

25 days holiday + bank holidays

Job summary

PepsiCo Inc. is seeking a results-driven AFH Account Leader to drive growth across the UK Contract Catering channel.

You will manage key partnerships, shape execution strategy, and deliver commercial objectives across workplace, education, healthcare, defence and leisure catering environments. Reporting to the Contract Catering lead, you will develop customer strategies, lead negotiations, and unlock opportunities with operators such as Elior, Entegra (Sodexo) and Aramark while working with

Qualifications

• Experience managing customer relationships, negotiations and joint business planning processes.
• Strong analytical capability with the ability to translate data into actionable growth plans.
• Proven track record of delivering results against targets and business objectives.
• Ability to build and manage senior stakeholder relationships across multiple national accounts.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deliver customer business plans for key AFH partners aligned to growth ambitions and annual plans.
• Identify opportunities to drive volume, revenue and market share within contract catering environments.
• Lead commercial negotiations, annual planning processes, and joint business plans.
• Collaborate with procurement, commercial, culinary and operations teams to unlock new opportunities.
• Deliver growth and ensure adherence to performance objectives and ROI on investments.
• Drive portfolio expansion and deployment of PepsiCo innovations within Contract Catering.

Skills

Commercial acumen

Stakeholder management

Negotiation skills

Joint business planning

Analytical thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Resilience

Leadership

Job description

Overview

An exciting opportunity to join PepsiCo's Away From Home (AFH) team and play a leading role in driving growth across the UK Contract Catering channel.

This position will have direct responsibility for managing key strategic partnerships including Elior, Entegra (Sodexo) and Aramark, whilst also playing a pivotal role in shaping and delivering PepsiCo's execution strategy across the wider contract catering landscape.

Reporting into the Contract Catering lead, you will be accountable for developing customer strategies, delivering commercial objectives, and unlocking new growth opportunities across workplace, education, healthcare, defence, and leisure catering environments.

Away From Home is a strategically important and fast-growing part of the PepsiCo business, offering broad exposure across multiple channels, customer groups and commercial functions. This role provides an excellent platform for developing strategic customer leadership, route-to-market expertise, and commercial account management capabilities.

Responsibilities

Customer Strategy & Growth

• Develop and deliver customer business plans for Elior, Entegra (Sodexo) and Aramark, aligned to PepsiCo's AFH growth ambitions and annual operating plan.


• Identify opportunities to drive volume, revenue and market share growth across snacks and food categories within contract catering environments.


• Develop customer-specific growth strategies that leverage consumer insights, category trends and operator needs.


• Drive distribution gains, menu penetration and portfolio expansion across contract catering sites and managed contracts.


• Support the wider development of PepsiCo's Contract Catering strategy, identifying scalable opportunities to grow share across the sector.

Strategic Customer Management

• Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders across Elior, Entegra and Aramark.


• Lead commercial negotiations, annual planning processes, joint business plans and contract discussions.


• Develop PepsiCo's position as a strategic growth partner through insight-led selling and value creation.


• Collaborate with customer procurement, commercial, culinary and operations teams to unlock new opportunities.


• Monitor performance against agreed objectives and take proactive action to address risks and accelerate growth.

Field Sales Leadership & Execution

• Work closely with Powerforce leadership and PepsiCo sales teams to identify target outlets, priority brands and execution standards.


• Drive best-in-class execution across availability, visibility, menu placement, equipment opportunities and promotional activity.


• Ensure strong communication and alignment between customer plans and field execution priorities.

Commercial Delivery

• Deliver annual volume, revenue and profitability targets across your account portfolio.


• Manage promotional investment and customer-specific funding with a strong focus on return on investment.


• Identify opportunities to improve contract compliance, distribution performance and execution standards.


• Utilise data, insight and reporting tools to track performance and inform customer growth plans.

Innovation & Portfolio Expansion

• Lead the deployment of PepsiCo innovation within Contract Catering, including snacks, food and emerging portfolio opportunities.


• Champion the Food Ventures agenda and identify relevant opportunities for concepts such as Doritos Loaded and future food platforms.


• Partner with Marketing and Category teams to develop compelling activation plans and customer propositions.


• Identify new routes to market and opportunities to strengthen PepsiCo's presence across workplace and institutional catering.

Qualifications

Essential

• Strong commercial mindset with a proven track record of delivering results against targets and business objectives.


• Excellent relationship-building and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence both internally and externally.


• Experience managing customer relationships, negotiations and joint business planning processes.


• Strong analytical capability with the ability to translate data and insights into actionable growth plans.


• Experience managing multiple projects and priorities in a fast-paced commercial environment.


• Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally and drive alignment across teams.


• Highly proactive, resilient and comfortable operating in an evolving environment.

Preferred

• Experience within FMCG, Foodservice, Away From Home or Contract Catering channels.


• Understanding of contract catering operators, buying groups and route-to-market dynamics.


• Experience working with strategic national accounts and multi-site operators.


• Exposure to field sales management or third-party agency relationships.


• Experience developing and delivering customer growth strategies through insight and innovation.

Leadership Behaviours

• Growth mindset with a passion for identifying and unlocking new opportunities.


• Strong ownership and accountability for delivering results.


• Customer-obsessed and externally focused.


• Collaborative and highly effective at building partnerships.


• Curious, insight-driven and action-oriented.


• Resilient and adaptable in a dynamic commercial environment.


• Ambitious with a passion for winning in the marketplace.

Success Measures

• Delivery of annual volume, net revenue and profitability targets.


• Growth of PepsiCo share and distribution within Elior, Entegra and Aramark.


• Increased penetration of PepsiCo's snacks and food portfolio within contract catering environments.


• Delivery of best‑in‑class customer relationships and joint business plans.


• Identification and implementation of new growth opportunities across the Contract Catering sector.

Salary and benefits

• Competetive salary


• Company tablet and mobile


• Company car


• Flexible benefits package.


• 25 days holiday (with the option to buy or sell more) + bank holidays.


• Extensive pension scheme.

Opportunities

The opportunities and channels for growth and progression are endless here at PepsiCo and being a company which strives on enhancing our employees we are positive that you will be able to have incredible and extensive career at PepsiCo.

We are an equal opportunity employer and comply with the Equality Act 2010, we value diversity at our company; it is an essential part of our success. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, pregnancy or maternity, marital/civil partnerships, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation, gender or gender reassignment, disability or race including; colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin.

For certain roles, we may ask you to declare any unspent criminal convictions in accordance with the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 at a later stage in the recruitment process and prior to any offer of employment being made. This information will be treated in strict confidence and considered only in relation to your suitability for the role.