Director Retail Sales

Job Description:

Reporting to the Vice President of Sales & Marketing, the Director for Retail Sales will have primary responsibility for executing sales and trade marketing activities for the Cloverdale and Blue-Ribbon brand of related products. The primary focus of the sales activities will be retail with a focus on the Midwest, South, and Pacific Northwest Regions. The Director of Retail Sales will also be the liaison with distribution and warehouse third parties for all Branded-Licensed business.

In addition, this position will support sales and trade marketing initiatives for all other Blue Ribbon/Cloverdale brands and private label sales initiatives. Based out of Blue Ribbons home market in Houston, TX the successful candidate must be self-motivated, have strong analytical skills, and must be capable of managing a national broker network. In addition to direct selling responsibility at national chains, they will lead, coach, and direct a team of sales and marketing professionals (internal and broker) with the objective of growing the Blue Ribbon/Cloverdale brands and related products on a national scale.

The ideal candidate will have the minimum of a bachelor’s degree, 15+ years of experience working in the CPG / Consumer Packaged Goods industry, and extensive experience in the retail food sector. The candidate will have experience working directly with retail accounts and managing a broker sales network. The candidate must be comfortable working with IRI / Nielsen analytics and must be able demonstrate experience developing and executing trade marketing / promotional sales programs. Travel for the position is anticipated to be 30% including overnight stays.

Primary Responsibilities:

1. Refine the vision for the Blue Ribbon/Cloverdale brands business.
2. Build and maintain a high performance, customer/consumer centric culture within the sales and broker organization.
3. Personally direct sales activities for major national accounts in the Midwest, South, and Pacific Northwest Regions.
4. Establish trade strategy and promotional programs at a customer level and work with the sales/broker organization to achieve effective execution.
5. Analyze customer/consumer syndicated data to identify actions and opportunities to drive positive business performance and train team members on an ongoing basis.
6. Manage and enhance the broker network by providing product knowledge, category analytics, promotional plans, and sales/share objectives. Establish and monitor performance with consistent collaboration and defining objectives. Make changes when/where necessary.
7. Manage business execution to meet or exceed annual revenue and operating income targets. This includes setting specific performance goals and objectives at the customer level.
8. Be the main point of contact for our Blue Ribbon/Cloverdale partners. This includes managing weekly team meetings, maintaining a current brand business strategy/plan, and reporting results (to both Blue Ribbon/Cloverdale brands corporate and the Sales Leadership team) on a monthly basis.
9. Manage forecasting and budgeting as required for Blue Ribbon and work with manufacturing to manage production and shipments to warehousing facilities in Texas.
10. Identify volume, margin, and other performance improvement opportunities.
11. Take accountability for P&L Management of the Blue Ribbon/Cloverdale business; strive to maximize revenue and margin across all categories.
12. Clearly define and communicate customer requests or issues to senior management.
13. Manage/act with transparency, honesty and fairness.

REQUIREMENTS AND MINIMUM EDUCATION LEVEL:

• Bachelor’s Degree. (Master’s degree preferred)
• 15+ years of experience in the food sector of the CPG/Consumer Packaged Goods industry, either in sales, trade marketing or consumer marketing.
• Ability to travel up to 30% with overnight stays.
• Prior experience leading teams, coaching, mentoring, leading, directing, and developing others.
• Prior experience developing, monitoring, and updating multi-year strategic plans.
• Strong working knowledge of IRI and/or AC Nielsen.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications. (Teams, Excel, PowerPoint and Word)
• Personal attributes of honesty and transparency; a management style of treating people with respect and decency.
• Prior food related CPG/Consumer Packaged Goods experience in sales, trade marketing or customer marketing, specifically, private label, branded and / or co-packed.
• Ability to execute day-to-day tactics while developing, monitoring, and updating a multi-year strategic plan. (Ability to see the big picture while being attentive to details)
• Results-driven with excellent judgement, decision making, interpersonal, verbal, written, and analytical skills.
• Strong decision making, problem solving, and organizational skills.
• Ability to lead, develop, direct, and hold others accountable to Blue Ribbon/Cloverdale’s standards.
• Ability to be a culture champion for the organization.
• Must have a valid driver’s license and a good driving record.
• Skill in organization, time management, prioritization, and attention to detail.
• Ability to adapt to changing organizational and operational needs.
• Must be able to pass all pre-employment screens (including drug, background and criminal checks).
• Ability to work varied hours/days including nights, weekends, and holidays as needed.

Cloverdale Foods Company offers a competitive compensation package and an excellent benefits program for confidential consideration, please send your resume to Jobs@cloverdalefoods.com or Fax: 701-663-0690. In order to comply with government recordkeeping requirements, please go to https://www.cloverdalefoods.com/careers/ and send us a completed Online Application along with your resume/cover letter.

Cloverdale Foods Company is an Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.