Home Based
Excellent Salary & Package
(including 30 days holiday a year + Bank Holidays)
Our client is revolutionising the future of farming, providing a more resilient and sustainable way to feed the world. Having grown at significant pace over the past five years, today they operate one of the largest vertical farms in the UK. Following a multi-million-pound investment, they are now poised for significant growth.
Their goal is to grow some of the world’s least sustainable foods at scale, in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way. With a proven track record in green energy and vertical farming, our client is set to achieve its goal of transforming the future of farming.
They believe that they are creating a revolution in farming with scalable, next generation, ‘Vertical Farms’. These are closed systems using an energy-efficient, LED-based lighting system to produce crops of the highest quality: leafy greens are grown in trays racked over many levels high and harvested via a highly-automated process. They grow a wide range of short leaf products including lettuce, rocket, watercress, chard, basil, dill and parsley. Their purpose built ground-breaking environment is powered by 100% green energy and will operate 365 days a year using only sustainable energy sources and providing yields 250 times greater than conventional farming.
In the next decade they are aiming for some of the world’s least sustainable foods to be grown at scale. Their goal is to produce soya beans, rice, and wheat in significant volumes, at price points that compare favourably to global commodity prices. As such, they are now looking to source a key individual to join them as Business Development Manager.
In the role, you will partner with the businesses Sales Director and collectively have full control of the customer relationships and ensure all of their product sales achieve maximum profitability for the business.
You will major on the attraction and onboarding of key clients be that retail or foodservice and be responsible for the overall success, growth and profitability of the sales elements of the business. You will represent the ‘voice of the client’ whilst being able to understand and communicate with what the customer needs. You will challenge the status quo and see possibility in unexpected places. You need to thrive in an agile, fast-paced and collaborative environment driven by constantly redefining the gold standard of services and products that assist their customers.
A key element of success is close attention to detail and having a clear understanding of their products cost drivers. The right candidate must ensure the business is making great commercial decisions and remain agile and responsive to sudden market movements. The best candidate for the role will have a track record for leveraging strong customer relationships but still be able to challenge both customers and internal stakeholders intelligently to achieve successful commercial and technical outcomes. As a strong communicator this candidate will be able to take the lead on developing and executing the businesses commercial strategy but do it in a way where all internal and external stakeholders feel involved.
Developing new markets and new customer relationships in existing markets will be a requirement for this role. The business is looking to rapidly expand initially in the UK market. As such, the right candidate needs to be adaptable to change but also able to lead that change. Seeking new opportunities and evaluating the right commercial direction is key to being able to deliver profitable growth for our client.
The business aspires to have a sales, commercial and technical function that is the envy of the sectors we operate in. The right candidate will be able to seamlessly get up to speed and integrate with an existing, high performing leadership team.
Responsibilities and Duties:
- Gain, onboard and manage the major customer relationships.
- Represent the voice of the client to the rest of the business.
- Assist to define the product roadmap and drive product requirement definition/requirements.
- Collate requirements from both customers and internal stakeholders and accumulate market knowledge of key targeted customers/segments through competitive analysis and market data analysis to develop appropriate commercial strategies to hit revenue and margin targets.
- Work with the management team to assist to further build the commercial strategy with required launches and external stakeholder plans.
- Analyse pricing structure relative to pricing levels in the marketplace, customer ROI and internal targets.
- Recommend and develop marketing strategies and programs.
- Provide technical and application information support to customers and their buying/technical team.
What We Are Keen to See From You:
- Ideally experience in short leafy greens or/and other related fresh produce/horticultural sectors.
- Proven track record in sales account management or other commercial functions with retail, foodservice/wholesale sectors.
- A great understanding of fresh produce logistics as well as market insight and data.
- A proven negotiator ideally relevant formal training.
- Experience in working with the likes of ERP,CRM and forecasting systems and have experience in developing new processes that improve communication, visibility or accuracy of commercial data.
- A can-do attitude and the ability to work in a fast paced and pressured environment.
- A proven track record delivering success through a well-structured team.
What’s on Offer:
There is an excellent base salary and bonus scheme available for the right individual with various other benefits including 30 days holiday per year (Bank Holidays in addition) and electric car allowance . The role is to be home or office based (depending on our location) with extensive travel in the UK. The opportunity to be involved in the definition of one of the most unique fresh sector company cultures and long-term strategy at an early growth stage is hugely exciting as is the chance to make a difference in a hugely innovative industry sector.
To find our more, apply via this website or call Max MacGillivray on 01284 715055 quoting Ref: 05563M.
