Want to help us bring happiness to the world? Want to join an ambitious and fast growing global biscuits and confectionery business investing heavily in iconic global brands, infrastructure and people? Then this is the place for you.

As proud bakers and chocolatiers and custodians of iconic global brands, we don’t compromise on the quality of ingredients in our products or on the people we hire. We are looking for entrepreneurial spirits who share our passion for bringing happiness to our consumers and who embody our Winning Traits.

To succeed at pladis you need to be purpose-led, resilient and positive to succeed here because we expect pace and agility, we insist on collaboration and demand accountability. If that is your thing, then pladis offers global ambition, a clear Vision and roadmap for success, challenge, and unrivalled opportunities to learn and make an impact

Click “Apply” to get started.

Key Accountability and deliverables:

Commercial Strategy

• Commercialize pladis NA business strategies and brand objectives into Channel and Customer-specific priorities. Ensure alignment to our Channel/Customer Segmentation, optimize for profitable growth, and adapt to customer needs with the goal to influence and engage shoppers throughout the path to purchase.

• Influence marketing plans designed to profitably grow pladis NA Brands, lead overall category growth, and ensure flawless execution of Channel/Customer 4P (Product, Price, Promo, Placement) objectives

• Lead development of commercial brand and category selling materials utilizing consumer trends, syndicated data, and category/marketplace insights. Lead deployment to our field sales team and broker partners

• Ensure selling stories are tailored appropriately for channel/customer and designed to maximize performance in the retailer/channel

• Serve as sales expert in internal processes (IBOP, S&OE, RGR). Provide thought leadership on channel launch strategies, trade spending guidance, 4P tactics, packaging optimization, and insight into pipeline forecasts.

• Proactively identify opportunities or business challenges and develop action plans to address

• Work with marketing and sales teams in planning and executing shopper marketing initiatives according to our Customer Segmentation strategy

• Establish channel and customer-specific KPIs which deliver against both short and long-term physical availability opportunities. Routinely evaluate ROI for continuous improvement.

• Join customer sales calls as the pladis brand expert.

Improve Trade Promotion Effectiveness

• Oversight accountability for trade and display budgets to maximize sales & profit while delivering Commercial Profit and Gross Margin improvements to the organization

• Establish monthly cadence with sales leaders to review and optimize trade activity; first line of approval for all trade spending

• Lead development of consistent post-promotion analytics across accounts and deliver compelling summaries for activation; create and maintain centralized promotional calendar library

• Evaluate and enhance pladis brand vs competitive promo depth and frequency, and identify gaps

• Develop national promo and pricing guidelines; deploy as part of our 4Ps go-to-market strategy 

• Identify gaps in our tool kit, build out new capabilities and deploy to key stakeholders with an eye to improve efficiency and effectiveness

• Establish, measure and report monthly sales financials and progress against annual KPIs

Design Price Pack Architecture

• Lead cross-functional team to develop price pack architecture for pladis brands ensuring marketplace competitiveness and channel price coherency

• Build price elasticity/cross-elasticity models for pladis brands and assess impact of marketplace price changes to inform future decisions

• Monitor everyday retail pricing landscape and pricing status  (eg: Price Points, Price Tiers, Curves); make recommendations for improvements

• Lead development, communication and execution of retail pricing action

Forecasting Capabilities

• Improve forecast accuracy by establishing cadence with field sales to review and optimize account-level forecasts in support of our Integrated Business Operations Planning Process (IBOP)

• Leverage data and derive insights to impact required forecast adjustments

• Lead cross-functional team to build out a new standardized forecasting model that integrates shipment & consumption history to support exception-based forecast methodology

• Monitor and track monthly forecast accuracy and attainment, evaluate causals and make recommendations to deliver improvements

• Serve as a key point of contact with our Planning Team as we establish monthly consensus-based forecasting processes – IBOP and S&OE

• Support the innovation stage gate process in building bottom-up forecasts for our innovation pipeline

• Institute monthly trade board meetings to evaluate risks/opportunities to deliver financial objectives

Skills & Experience:

• CPG or Food Industry experience within a combination of Direct Sales/Customer Development, Trade or Commercial Strategy, Sales Analytics or Planning, Category Management, and/or Commercial Finance required

• 12+ years of progressive experience in the afore-mentioned areas

• B.S. is required; MBA is a plus

• People management

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills

• Ability to stand alone and influence both up and down within and outside the organization

• Advanced analytical skills

• Superior understanding of retail marketplace dynamics and customer growth strategies

• Strong command of 4P (product/price/promotion/placement) analytical techniques

• Proven ability to balance multiple priorities, work independently and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment

• Build from scratch mentality with the ability to institute new standardized processes and establish a consistent, disciplined approach to how we operate

• A drive, commitment and sense of urgency that inspires others to be their best and achieve results

• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office, Syndicated Data (IR/Nielsen), Power BI, TPM and ERP systems

Personal Attributes:

• Able to position themselves and drive followership as a leader and trusted advisor to stakeholders (internal and external) and build strong working relationships both vertically and horizontally

• Accountable for results and how they are achieved

• Thrives in an environment that is fast-paced and able to adapt to changing situations

• Exceptional story telling capabilities with the ability to integrate complex, disparate data sources into a simple yet compelling selling proposition

• Detail oriented with strong organizational, analytical and problem-solving skills

• Analytical with the ability to convert data into strategic business insights that drive decision-making

• Persistent in overcoming and removing obstacles that impact goal achievement

• Proactive in bringing forth actionable insights and new ideas

• Proven track record of developing talent 

• Genuine in desire to build a positive and productive high-performance team culture

ADDTIONAL JOB DETAILS:

Base starting salary at $215,000/yr. The base pay offered is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and internal equity.

pladis is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to hiring a diverse workforce. All openings will be filled based on qualifications without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, age, religion or any other classification protected by law.

We operate a strict Preferred Supplier List. If you are a recruitment agency and wish to submit candidate to be considered for this vacancy, you must have agreed to, and signed, our terms of business.
We will not accept CVs from any other sources other than those currently on our PSL. We will not pay a fee for any candidate that has not been represented by a provider on our PSL.