Commercial Manager - Fresh Produce

Henderson Brown Recruitment; Cambridge; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

bonus

matched pension

life assurance

private medical cover

health cash plan

Job summary

Henderson Brown Recruitment is seeking a Commercial Manager - Fresh Produce in Cambridgeshire. You will own three major UK grocery accounts with full P&L responsibility, acting as the primary customer contact and shaping the account and trade plans.

You'll work in a role with strong emphasis on margin, forecasting, NPD coordination, and category insight, supported by a team. The position offers hybrid working: 3 days on site and 2 days from home, with a competitive package and benefits.

Qualifications

• P&L ownership and robust commercial controls across accounts.
• Strong forecasting and margin management capabilities.
• Excellent Excel and data analysis to drive decisions.

Responsibilities

• Own the commercial performance of three grocery accounts end to end.
• Manage margin, forecasting and trade plan investment for each account.
• Develop account plans with NPD, range, and end-to-end initiatives.
• Lead on changes to range and launches with cross-functional teams.
• Use data on sales, stock, and waste to improve performance.
• Monitor market share, drivers, and waste issues to protect value.

Skills

P&L ownership

Financial forecasting

Excel & analysis

NPD planning

Account management

Tools

Excel

Forecasting software

Job description

A commercial role where you own three major grocery accounts outright - full P&L, not a slice of someone else's.

Commercial Manager - Fresh Produce

Cambridgeshire

Hybrid: 3 days on site / 2 days working from home

£65,000 - £75,000 + benefits, bonus

Permanent

The Opportunity

We're supporting a well-established produce business with the appointment of a Commercial Manager.

This is one of the larger commercial seats in the business. You'd take on multiple major UK grocery accounts, with full profit and loss responsibility across all three - the customer relationship, the account plan, the trade plan and the numbers behind them.

It isn't a support role underneath a senior account lead. You are the customer's point of contact and the person who owns the performance.

Two things worth knowing early: customer visits average around once a fortnight, and there's a one-in-five weekend cover rota shared across the commercial team. That rota is phone-based - being reachable if something breaks down, not working the weekend.

Key Responsibilities

You'll own the commercial performance of your accounts end to end, working closely with NPD, technical, planning and operations to deliver it.

• Build and develop the customer relationships that sit behind sales and profit delivery.
• Own the P&L for your accounts, including margin, forecasting and trade plan investment.
• Build account plans capturing NPD, range and end-to-end initiatives, and grow sales and profit within them.
• Manage range and NPD/EPD changes through to successful launch.
• Use sales, stock, availability and waste data to drive decisions that benefit both sides.
• Stay close to category and market performance - market share, sales drivers, waste issues and underperforming lines.

What We’re Looking For

You'll be an established Commercial Manager, Senior National Account Manager or National Account Manager from food manufacturing, with genuine P&L ownership rather than sales responsibility alone.

Fresh produce experience is the strong preference here. Broader chilled FMCG on its own is less likely to land, simply because the pace, seasonality and waste dynamics of produce are the hardest part of the job to learn on the move.

Beyond that, it's commercial judgement, comfort with detail and the confidence to hold your own across an internal business. Strong Excel and analysis genuinely matter - forecasting, availability, stock and waste are the substance of the role, not reporting after the fact.

Why Join?

This is real ownership. Three significant grocery accounts, a meaningful share of the business's turnover, and a direct line between your decisions and the commercial result.

You'd be joining a long-established produce supplie - a business with serious manufacturing capability behind it and long-standing retail relationships in front of it.

The package is £65,000 - 75,000 with benefits, including bonus, matched pension, life assurance, private medical cover and a health cash plan, with hybrid working of 3 days on site and 2 from home and no fixed office days.

• bonus
• matched pension
• life assurance
• private medical cover
• health cash plan

If you're interested in learning more, we'd be happy to have a confidential conversation