Senior National Account Manager

The Village Bakery, an award-winning family bakery, is currently looking for a Senior National Account Manager (SNAM) to complement an existing passionate and enthusiastic Commercial team based in Wrexham.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced and commercially focused individual to lead, manage and develop key national customer accounts, delivering sustainable sales growth, profitability and strong customer relationships across the business.

What would you get for working here?

If You Have The Commercial, Customer Account Management And FMCG Experience We Are Looking For, You Will Receive a Total Reward Package That Includes

• A competitive salary dependent on experience
• 10% Pension Contribution (5% Ees / 5% Ers)
• 33 days annual leave (Inc of Bank Holidays)
• Life Insurance (4x Basic Salary)
• Private Health (Family)
• £250 refer-a-friend scheme
• Access to Stream (formerly Wagestream) – a financial wellbeing benefit that lets you track earnings and access earned pay before payday, plus budgeting tools and money support to help you stay in control.
• Access to an exclusive employee benefits/discounts platform where you can save £££s on your everyday spends
• Excellent coffee machines available free-of-charge
• Professional development opportunities and qualifications
• A progressive working environment that puts its people at the heart of what it does
• Great opportunity for career development
  
  

What would you be doing?

Our vision is to be the “go-to” supplier of premium bakery products, working nationally with leading retailers and regionally through our own brands. As part of our Commercial team, you will play a key role in supporting this vision by managing and developing designated national customer accounts, building strong customer relationships and identifying opportunities for profitable growth.

As Senior National Account Manager, your core tasks and responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Managing and developing designated national customer accounts, building strong and effective relationships with key customer contacts.
• Taking ownership of customer account plans, ensuring they support the wider commercial and business strategy.
• Acting as the main commercial point of contact for allocated customers, ensuring effective communication and timely resolution of issues.
• Developing a detailed understanding of customer strategies, category priorities, market trends and competitor activity.
• Identifying opportunities to grow sales, improve profitability and strengthen the company’s position with key customers.
• Delivering agreed sales, volume, margin and profitability targets for designated accounts.
• Leading customer negotiations, including pricing reviews, promotional activity, trading agreements and contract discussions.
• Preparing and presenting commercial proposals, tenders and customer business plans.
• Monitoring customer performance against budget, forecast and agreed KPIs, taking corrective action where required.
• Using market, category and customer insight to identify opportunities for growth and product development.
• Working closely with the NPD team to identify, develop and deliver new product opportunities for national accounts.
• Working cross-functionally with Operations, Planning, Supply Chain, Technical, Quality and Finance teams to ensure customer expectations are understood and delivered effectively.
• Maintaining accurate account records, forecasts, customer plans and commercial reports.
• Providing regular updates on account performance, risks, opportunities and progress against objectives.
  
  

The successful candidate for this role will need to demonstrate the following skills, qualifications and attributes:

Knowledge Requirements

• Strong understanding of national account management within FMCG, food manufacturing or a similar fast-paced commercial environment.
• Strong commercial acumen, with experience of delivering sales, margin and profit targets.
• Experience of customer negotiation, pricing reviews, promotional planning and joint business planning.
• Strong understanding of account planning, category performance, customer strategy and market insight.
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to interpret sales, margin, forecast and customer performance data.
• Confident user of Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and relevant reporting systems.
• Ability to work effectively across internal teams including NPD, Technical, Operations, Supply Chain, Planning and Finance.
  
  

Essential

• Proven experience as a National Account Manager or Senior National Account Manager within FMCG, food manufacturing or a similar fast-paced commercial environment.
• Experience managing major UK retail, foodservice or national customer accounts.
• Strong communication, presentation and relationship management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines and customer requirements.
• Strong attention to detail and the ability to produce accurate reports, proposals and customer presentations.
• Full UK driving licence and willingness to travel to customer meetings and company sites as required.
  
  

Desirable

• Experience within bakery, chilled food, ambient food or own-label manufacturing.
• Experience working with major UK retailers and retailer systems.
• Experience managing tenders, range reviews and major customer negotiations.
• Experience of line management or coaching more junior members of a commercial team.
• Degree or equivalent qualification in Business, Sales, Marketing, Food, or a related discipline.
• Category management or negotiation training.
  
  

So, who are we? If you haven’t heard of us before we are a family owned and managed Craft Bakery producing an award-winning range of Bread, Morning Goods, Pies and gluten free products.

Our business has been producing products in this category since 1964 and since then we have grown in success due to our reputation for quality, innovation and technical experience. As a result of this continued growth, we now operate from a number of world class and well invested bakeries in and around Wrexham, including our dedicated Gluten free site ‘Gluten Freedom’ and our state-of-the-art ‘Super Bakery’ at Ash Road.

If you would like to join our award-winning, quality-driven team please use the ‘apply now’ link and follow the on-line application instructions.

We look forward to welcoming you to our team soon!

Equal opportunities

We are an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates and will make reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

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