Strategic National Grocery Accounts Lead

MacGregor Black; England; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

MacGregor Black is recruiting for a National Account Manager – Waitrose to own and develop a key grocery partnership. You will safeguard performance, drive forecasting accuracy, and protect service levels while seeking profitable growth opportunities.

You will collaborate with buying, category, technical, supply chain and NPD teams to plan, negotiate and deliver on strategic priorities for the account.

Qualifications

• Must have national account management experience in grocery within a food or drink manufacturer.
• Experience handling a sizeable, operationally demanding customer under pressure.
• Strong analytical and commercial judgement with forecasting, margin analysis, and pricing.
• Understanding of how forecasting and supply chain affect customer service.
• Proven negotiation skills, including cost price increases and promotions.
• Ability to challenge constructively while protecting long-term relationships.
• Excellent stakeholder management across commercial, operational and technical teams.
• Calm, organized under pressure with multi-workstream prioritization.
• Willingness to spend time on site with the teams.

Responsibilities

• Own the Waitrose relationship day-to-day and strategically.
• Create and execute an account plan covering sales, margins and forecasts.
• Lead forecasting and demand planning with planning and supply chain.
• Monitor KPIs for service levels, availability and quality.
• Use EPOS and market data to drive evidence-based recommendations.
• Manage account profitability, pricing, and promotional investments.
• Collaborate with supply chain and NPD on delivery and launches.
• Assess new opportunities for capacity, complexity and margin.
• Lead joint business reviews and negotiations with customers.
• Handle escalations with transparent communication.
• Represent the customer to internal teams about standards and expectations.

Skills

National accounts

Grocery industry

Forecasting

P&L management

Negotiation

Stakeholder mgmt

Analytical thinking

Job description

MacGregor Black is recruiting for a National Account Manager – Waitrose to own and develop a key grocery partnership. You will safeguard performance, drive forecasting accuracy, and protect service levels while seeking profitable growth opportunities.

You will collaborate with buying, category, technical, supply chain and NPD teams to plan, negotiate and deliver on strategic priorities for the account.