Benelux Business Manager

Premier Foods; St Albans; Remote; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in the food sector is seeking a Business Development Manager to drive business strategy for their categories in the Netherlands and Belgium. This role requires proven experience in sales, fluency in Dutch and French, and the ability to work independently while contributing to the broader team success. You will manage relationships with distributors and develop annual plans while tracking performance against targets.

Qualifications

• 5+ years experience in Sales/Account Management/Business Development.
• Experience with top 3 retailers and distributors in the Netherlands and Belgium.
• Ability to travel and manage sales data.

Responsibilities

• Drive business strategy in the Netherlands and Belgium, managing distributors and retail relationships.
• Develop joint annual plans with customers and track progress.
• Ensure correct implementation of pricing structures.

Skills

Fluency in English

Fluency in Dutch

Fluency in French

Problem Solving

Sales Data Analysis

Job description

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The Netherlands OR Belgium (Home based) with 1-2 days per month travel to UK based Head Office in (London Metropolitan area)

OUR MISSION

With a wide portfolio of brands and a presence in more than 95% of British households Premier Foods is one of the top 3 ambient food suppliers in the UK with brands like Mr Kipling and Cadbury cakes, FUEL10K breakfasts or Sharwood’s and The Spice Tailor cooking sauces.

We’re on a mission to bring our brands to international markets. This story is one of high growth, interesting challenges, and an enormous opportunity ahead of us. It began with the creation a small export team of less than 5 people. Fast forward 10 years and our international team has now grown to a truly global organization of 60+ people and sales across 50+ countries building brands across the globe for millions of international consumers. You can think about our international team as a big start-up (high growth & fast-moving environment, high level of ownership and fast decision making) with the capabilities of a larger organisation.

Our goal is to find skilled entrepreneurial people who share our passion for growth and have demonstrated their ambition through interesting and demanding professional roles and education. Our strength lies in the diversity of our team members’ previous experiences. For all our roles, we are open to candidates from a number of sales backgrounds and from exciting growth start-up businesses to highly sophisticated blue chip FMCG organisations.

THE ROLE

What you'll be doing:

• Drive the business strategy in the Netherlands and Belgium across both existing (Food of the World and Quick Meals) and new (Breakfast and Cake) categories.
• Manage and grow existing in-market distributors and setup new direct to retail relationships for relevant categories, delivering compelling plans and arguments
• Prioritise the opportunity amongst your markets, customers & brands
• Deliver sales spend and profit targets(own your numbers & your forecast)
• Develop joint annual plans with your customers around distribution, product range and activities in market
• Setup and manage an external Field Sales force where relevant
• Track and monitor progress against the plan, recommending corrective actions and strategic changes to ensure targets are met
• Ensure pricing structures are implemented correctly and on time
• Responsible for all systems / processes / housekeeping (price, invoice, claims) related activity in relation to your customers
• Contribute to the wider team success with input into the European strategy and execution (e.g. Trade shows)

What we need from you:

• Direct experience of the Dutch market and fluency in both English and Dutch
• Entrepreneurial, self driven & action oriented
• Eager, problem solver and a quick learner
• Able to work independently (with support of the wider team and access to a best-in-class training program)
• Demonstrable 5Y+ experience in Sales /Account Management/ Business development
• Experience working with top 3 retailers (e.g. Albert Heijn) and distributors
• Numbers tracking on Excel
• At ease with sales data analysis and systems
• Ability to travel within the Netherlands and Belgium for customer meetings and UK (monthly meeting)
• Direct experience of the Belgian market and fluency in French
• Breadth of experience across market development functions including marketing or category management
• Experience of selling to retailers or distributors in adjacent markets (e.g. Germany)
• Knowledge of Promotional evaluation tools