Commercial Manager – Fresh Produce
Fresh People are managing the recruitment of a Commercial Manager on behalf of a well-established and successful fresh produce business.
This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced commercial professional with a strong understanding of fresh produce procurement, customer management and supply chain operations. The successful candidate will take ownership of specific categories while also supporting the procurement
Working closely with customers, growers, suppliers and internal operational teams, you will be responsible for delivering agreed sales, volume and margin targets while maintaining excellent service levels and identifying commercial improvements throughout the supply chain.
The Role
As Commercial Manager, your responsibilities will include:
- Taking responsibility for the commercial and procurement management of the category.
- Developing a strong understanding of customer service expectations and ensuring these are consistently achieved.
- Delivering agreed sales, volume and margin targets.
- Establishing, developing and maintaining effective relationships with growers and suppliers.
- Producing weekly customer costings and commercial updates.
- Managing price returns to growers and suppliers within agreed timescales.
- Preparing and delivering end-of-season reviews with customers and suppliers.
- Identifying and delivering cost savings across the supply chain.
- Introducing improved commercial processes and more effective ways of working.
- Working closely with supply chain, procurement, technical, quality and operational teams to ensure product is delivered on time and to the required standard.
- Supporting the development and delivery of joint customer category plans.
- Providing accurate commercial account information to support forecasting and longer-term procurement programmes.
- Contributing to the development and promotion of the product range.
- Working with customer and technical teams to resolve sourcing, availability and product-quality issues.
- Communicating technical or quality matters clearly to customer commercial teams.
- Maintaining a strong understanding of market conditions, consumer trends, competitor activity and product development.
- Ensuring commercial, financial and administrative controls are followed.
About You
We are looking for someone who can demonstrate:
- Previous commercial, procurement or category management experience within fresh produce.
- Experience working with UK retailers, fresh produce customers, growers or suppliers.
- A strong understanding of seasonal procurement, pricing, margins, volumes and availability.
- The ability to prepare commercial costings and manage supplier or grower returns.
- Strong negotiation and relationship-management skills.
- The ability to interpret market information and identify commercial opportunities.
- Experience working collaboratively with supply chain, technical, quality and operational teams.
- Excellent organisation, communication and problem-solving skills.
- Confidence managing competing priorities within a fast-moving and highly seasonal environment.
- Previous people-management or team-development experience.
Experience within a fresh produce category would be particularly advantageous.
To apply, please submit your CV or contact Fresh People for a confidential discussion about the opportunity.
