Client Director

UK-Wide / Field-Based

c. £60,000 + car / allowance + bonus + private healthcare

Most account roles give you responsibility without much control. This one gives you both.

You’ll inherit a portfolio, manage around 10–12 accounts across foodservice channels including education, leisure, hospitality, contract catering, B&I and themed attractions. Some will be deep strategic partnerships while others will be more established, lighter-touch relationships. The skill is knowing which is which.

This is not just a relationship job. It’s a commercial role for someone who can walk into a client site, understand how the operation really works, and spot opportunity where others just see a routine visit.

You’ll own the growth of your portfolio, working closely with commercial, culinary, development and regional teams to increase volume, protect margin, open doors, secure renewals and turn good relationships into more profitable ones.

The package includes a salary around £60,000, company car or £5,000 allowance, private healthcare, mileage support and an annual profit-share bonus. There’s also longer-term upside through an Employee Ownership Trust, giving you meaningful financial participation as the business grows.

There will be travel. This is UK-wide, so you’ll need to be comfortable with Scotland one week, the South Coast another, and around five overnight stays a month. Hotels are provided for longer journeys, and the role will suit someone who understands that being visible with clients matters.

What you’ll be doing:

• Lead a portfolio of key foodservice accounts across multiple sectors, building senior relationships that go beyond buyer-supplier conversations.
• Become genuinely useful to your clients — involved in development meetings, training events, marketing initiatives, product showcases, tastings, launches and innovation conversations.
• Manage budgets, pricing discussions, renewals, negotiations, retention plans and margin performance, with support from the commercial team where needed.
• Look for growth through new listings, upselling, concept expansion and better use of the products and services already available.
• Build proper account plans, map stakeholders, understand each site’s operation and feed useful market insight back into the business.
• Work independently, manage your own diary and bring solutions rather than problems.

What you’ll need:

• Strong foodservice experience in a senior account, commercial, client relationship or operational leadership role.
• Education catering experience is useful, but experience across other channels — leisure, hospitality, B&I, hotels, themed attractions or wider contract catering — will be especially interesting.
• If coming from operations, you’ll probably need to have reached Senior Operations Manager level or above.
• Confidence to push doors open without being pushy, read people properly, challenge where needed and build credibility quickly.
• A CV that shows some staying power; this business invests in people.
• Honesty, commercial sharpness and a genuine concern for doing a good job.

About the company:

It’s a growing food solutions business operating as an Employee Ownership Trust. They aim to work as a proper commercial and culinary partner, embedded in the client’s operation and helping them improve what they do. The culture is collaborative, ambitious and refreshingly direct. They want people who think commercially, act with integrity and build lasting relationships. This is also a business creating room for succession, with new Client Director roles and a growing team offering future progression potential.

What you’ll get:

• c. £60,000 base salary
• Company car or £5,000 car allowance
• Annual profit-share bonus
• Private healthcare
• Mileage support
• Hotel provided for journeys over 100 miles from home
• Long-term EOT financial participation
• Direct access to the Director of National Accounts
• Genuine autonomy over your accounts and diary
• A growing team with future progression potential