National Accounts Manager- West

Job description:
About Zespri

Zespri is the world’s largest marketer of kiwifruit with over 800  people in New Zealand and throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas.

We  help people, communities and the environment thrive through the goodness of kiwifruit. We sit at the heart of an interconnected industry working with 2,800 growers in New Zealand and 1,500 growers in Italy, France, Greece, South Korea and Japan. We supply the world’s healthiest little superfruits to people in more than 50 countries. We are fruit on a mission.

Our values are at the heart of everything we do. We commit to guardianship; putting people, the community, and the environment first. We are results-driven, challenging ourselves to grow and deliver better value. We cultivate personal connections, listening and acting with empathy and humility – and treating each other better for it.

We are growing quickly, driven by our success in engaging more and more consumers and by offering the world’s best kiwifruit 12 months of the year. We have bold ambitions and aim to grow sales from approximately $3 billion in 2018 to $4.5 billion by 2025.

To achieve our goals, we’re empowering our people to achieve their goals, designing our work for wellbeing, through flexible work practices and self-leadership.

We have bold ambitions for the future and we want all of our people to live and perform at their best.

About The Role

The purpose of the role is to develop and optimize consultative relationships with Distributors & Retailers for The West Coast Market and National Accounts, to implement Zespri's strategy to deliver the annual volume results for the Region. The role is accountable for ensuring there is an effective Distribution Network in place, through to Retail Accounts, developing & implementing Plan(s) for the Region that optimizes Zespri customer funds & investments to deliver the brand execution & trade marketing plans with key Distributors and Retailers.

 

Key Responsibilities

 

• Manage and maintain close relationships with food brokers, merchandising companies to help manage retails accounts and best instore execution of Zespri’s products. 
• Be an active and effective communicator to the rest of the North America and Global team sharing retailer intelligence, trade marketing programs, competitor analysis, and best practices of the market. 
• Driving agreed on strategic projects to develop the market and support the long-term growth of the region.
• Effectively use shopper, consumer, retailer data to set up compelling and fact-based selling strategies aimed at the best practices approach of account management. 
• Optimizing Zespri’s trade marketing investments and initiatives in the region (including design price architecture and promotional strategy, in-store positioning, and packaging format options for retailers to support shopper behavior and sales growth). 
• Define Sales Strategy for the region. This includes define where to play (market sizing, geography & channel priorities), how to win (route to market & customer), and define customer funds strategy
• Develop and manage effective relationships with national, regional, and local customers and distributors. Ensure an effective distribution network and optimize Zespri’s partnership with its partners to maximize sales and grower return. 
• Manage sales operational excellence including, demand forecasting, manage customer inventory and quality, manager customer sell-through and orders, manage quality claims and minimize fruit loss, manager customer funds, and sales promotions and manage legal compliance and contract/trade terms

Key Skills and Experience

• Strong communication skills and stakeholder management 
• Experience developing Customer Plans and executing trade & shopper marketing programs with excellence with Customers
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making mindset. 
• Experience in and knowledge of Category Management and how to go to market with a category centric approach
• Experience in sales strategy creation and delivery
• Experience in managing different Retail customers and/or both selecting and developing multiple Distributors over the long term, to develop mutually beneficial partnerships and long-term growth
• 6+ Years’ experience in Fresh Produce/FMCG Sales including KA Sales roles and ideally Trade Marketing/Category Management /Marketing experience
• Demonstrated ability to lead teams 
• Strong financial and commercial awareness
• Experience managing perishable products
• Experience managing national customers and accounts is a must.

 

What's In It For You

 

• Additional paid volunteer day to volunteer within your community (Volunteer Time).
• FlexWELL flexible work ethos.
• Additional paid annual leave day per year (Zespri Day).
• Group Medical Insurance benefits.
• The base salary for this position is between 110k - 140k plus a performance-based short-term incentive scheme (for employees who meet the eligibility criteria). Please note that individual total compensation will vary based on factors such as qualifications, skill level, competencies, performance and work location.
• Global Life and Permanent Disability Insurance.

So if you’d like to join a purpose-led, values based organisation, that puts people at the heart of what we do, apply now!

Agencies

Zespri will not accept applications or contact from any temporary staffing agency, placement service or professional recruiter for this vacancy (“Agency”).

Where Zespri requires the support of an agency to fulfil a vacancy, we will proactively seek this support from our network of Agencies.  We respectfully ask that you do not contact Zespri or any of its affiliates/employees regarding vacancies, and reserve the right not to reply.

Zespri will not be responsible for, and will not pay, any fees, commissions or other payments related to such unsolicited resumes.