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Commercial Director

Employer
Redfox Executive Selection Ltd
Location
Kent
Salary
To attract the best!
Closing date
18 Mar 2019

Job Details

Commercial Director required – Thanet Earth

The UK's Largest Hi-Tech Greenhouse based Kent 

Excellent senior level package & benefits to attract the best

The technology of tomorrow combines with the brightest minds in horticulture at this major Kent landmark. Producing millions of sustainably-grown specialty tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.

On the north Kent coast near Birchington this hugely impressive commercial greenhouse site has been operational since 2009. It is the UK’s most technologically-advanced site of its kind, with an approximate investment spend of £150m. Around 20% of all tomatoes grown in the UK are produced on site at Thanet Earth. The Fresca Group is a joint venture partner in this business along with three Dutch grower companies. The crops are grown specifically to serve demand in the UK retail sector, with additional volumes available for wholesale or foodservice. Thanet Earth is an importer too, with great operational capacity that benefits from the very latest storage and packing systems.

With the optimism in the fresh food sectors that consumers are starting to move away from a heavy reliance on meat and look for more flexitarian, healthy meal choices combined with a positive movement against high sugar goods, Thanet Earth is ideally placed to continue to enjoy the excellent growth rates they have experienced over recent years.

As such, they have made a strategic decision to strengthen their commercial team to meet the increasing positive requirements from their retail customers.

They are looking to source a proven individual from the FMCG/Fresh Food Sectors as Commercial Director for the business with a very strong Commercial Account Management and business skill-set. In this role you will have ultimate control of the business's commercial and strategic direction with its key retailers.

So interpersonal and communication skills are an absolute must.

Main responsibilities of the role:

  • To manage all of their highly valued retail customer accounts at a senior level
  • To create and deliver programme objectives to support the implementation and delivery of improved business performance, processes and ways of working with key retailers
  • Agree business targets and translate these into prioritised customer and delivery plans again with the key retailers
  • Determine, monitor and review programme costs, resource levels, staffing costs and program risk to ensure effective and efficient programme delivery
  • Leadership of the complete commercial team to ensure delivery of initiatives on time and in line with your targets and your objectives
  • Align programme objectives with business objectives and authorise the selection, prioritisation and planning of all related project activities, to create an integrated programme and reporting process across the retail accounts
  • Create and lead the joint ways of working within the team, driving alignment, consistency and unity in how the team operates and behaves
  • Be available for overseas travel in Europe and North Africa
  • Manage profitability and all financial KPI’s effectively
  • Create commercial success ongoing

What will make the Ideal candidate:

The role would suit a degree qualified Senior level Commercial expert (or similar role in other functions) who is people oriented and an excellent commercial leader. You will thrive on working as part of a team, managing multiple stakeholder and working in a pressured environment of continuous improvement.

Ideally we need you to have previous FMCG experience working with top Retailers and be either from the UK or the Netherlands/rest of the EU. We do need you to have demonstrable experience of developing influential relationships with customers and suppliers alike. And it goes without saying that you will be PC literate with fantastic communication, numerical and influencing skills.

What we want to see from you:

  • You will be outgoing, with the ability to get on with people from customer to supplier level
  • Great analytical skills
  • Ability to navigate a number of the client’s retail systems effectively
  • Excel skills – Intermediate or above
  • Very strong negotiation skills
  • Well organised with the ability to react to change quickly

This is potentially one of the most exciting roles we have seen in our commercial sphere for two defined reasons. Firstly because of the attributes of Thanet Earth as a company combined with their growth to date and secondly because of the commercial freedom they are looking to offer the right individual to create commercial success for the business in this hugely exciting role.

To find out more, please send us your details via this website in the first instance or call Max MacGillivray on +44 (0) 1284 715055 quoting Ref: 5033M

Please note that Redfox are working on an exclusive and retained basis on this recruitment project for Thanet Earth. As such any third party applications will be directly forwarded to Redfox.

Company

If you're in the global food chain business you'll know that recruiting the finest, most respected senior candidates is vital to your industry's exciting future. Redfox is an executive recruitment consultancy which specialises in matching high calibre candidates with top global roles in agriculture, fresh produce, food manufacturing, and retail. Our credentials? Everyone in our team has worked extensively in the industry. Together, we know it inside out. Our knowledge and integrity has helped us establish solid relationships with quality clients who rely on us to source only the best candidates. That's where you come in.

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