Area Manager- South Island

George Weston Foods; Christchurch; On-site; NZD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

George Weston Foods is seeking an Area Manager to cover the Upper South Island region, delivering commercial outcomes across grocery stores and building long-term customer partnerships. This field-based role requires travel across the region and a commercial mindset to drive growth within Tip Top brands.

Ideal candidates will have 3–5+ years in field sales or key accounts, strong negotiation skills, and a data-driven approach using insights from tools like Aztec and Nielsen.

Qualifications

• 3–5+ years’ experience in field sales or key account roles.
• Strong commercial acumen with a results-driven mindset.
• Confidence using data and insights (e.g. Aztec, Nielsen) to support decision-making.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence store owners and operators.
• Well-developed negotiation and relationship-management capabilities.
• Resilience, initiative and a continuous improvement mindset.
• A business degree is desirable, not essential.

Responsibilities

• Deliver sales, volume, gross margin and trade spend targets across your territory.
• Lead a team of merchandisers (with support) to deliver on execution excellence daily.
• Manage and grow relationships with South Island stores (e.g. Pak’nSave, New World, Woolworths, Four Square, Fresh Choice).
• Support preferred supplier negotiations and optimise commercial agreements with the Regional Sales Manager.
• Develop and execute customer business plans for major stores, including promotions, displays, pricing and space negotiations.
• Analyse sales and performance data to provide insights and actions.
• Ensure compliance with company policies, health and safety requirements and GWF values.

Skills

Field sales

Key account

Data-driven

Negotiation

Education

Business degree

Tools

Aztec

Nielsen

Job description

About the business

George Weston Foods (GWF) is one of Australia and New Zealand’s largest food manufacturers, employing around 6,000 people across more than 60 sites. Our portfolio includes many of the region’s most trusted food brands across bread, baked goods, flour, milling and animal nutrition.

Tip Top is one of GWF’s flagship divisions and a household name across New Zealand, supplying iconic brands such as Tip Top Bakery Supersoft, Big Ben and Ploughman’s Bakery. Our people are passionate about delivering quality products and building long‑term customer partnerships that drive sustainable growth.

The opportunity

An exciting opportunity has become available for an Area Manager to join our Sales team, covering the Upper South Island region. Reporting to the Regional Sales Manager South Island, this role is responsible for delivering commercial outcomes across grocery supermarket stores while building strong, long‑term customer relationships.

This is a hands‑on, field‑based role which requires travel across the region. Suited to a commercially astute sales professional who thrives in a fast‑paced FMCG environment and enjoys working collaboratively to achieve results.

Key responsibilities

In this role, you will:

• Deliver sales, volume, gross margin and trade spend targets across your territory
• Lead a team of merchandisers (with the support of Merchandising Coordinator) to deliver on execution excellence daily
• Manage and grow relationships with South Island stores, including Pak’nSave, New World, Woolworths, Four Square and Fresh Choice
• Support preferred supplier negotiations and optimise commercial agreements in collaboration with the Regional Sales Manager
• Develop and execute customer business plans for major stores, including promotional activity, displays, pricing and space negotiations
• Analyse sales and performance data to provide insights and recommend actions
• Ensure compliance with company policies, health and safety requirements and GWF values

About you

You will bring:

• Ideally 3–5+ years’ experience in field sales or key account roles, ideally within FMCG
• Strong commercial acumen with a proven results‑driven mindset
• Confidence using data and insights (e.g. Aztec, Nielsen) to support decision‑making
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence store owners and operators
• Well‑developed negotiation and relationship‑management capabilities
• Resilience, initiative and a continuous improvement mindset
• A passion for achieving results and contributing to team and organisational success
• A business degree (desirable, not essential)

Why join us?

• Work with iconic, market‑leading brands
• Be part of a high‑performance, values‑driven organisation
• Enjoy autonomy in your territory with strong support from a collaborative team
• Access development opportunities within a large, multinational organisation