Sales Director - Retail

Nigel Wright Group is supporting Cloetta with this search.

At Cloetta, we don’t just make candy – we create moments of joy for millions of consumers across more than 60 markets. With a strong heritage and a portfolio of iconic brands, we are now focused on strengthening and transforming our UK business into a more customer centric, commercially disciplined, and growth oriented organisation. The Sales Director UK plays a central role in this journey. As part of the UK Leadership Team, this role is critical in shaping how Cloetta shows up with its customers, while building the commercial capabilities required to deliver sustainable growth.

Role Purpose

As Sales Director (Retail) UK, you are accountable for leading and delivering the UK sales agenda across grocery, convenience, high street and discounters, with full responsibility for both top and bottom line performance. Your impact will be centered on:

• Turning around and strengthening the UK business through disciplined commercial execution.
• Building and leading a high performing sales organisation, with a strong culture of ownership and accountability.
• Developing deep, trusted customer relationships across the UK retail landscape.
• Driving a clear connection between consumer understanding, customer strategy, and commercial delivery.

This is a role for a senior commercial leader who combines strong retail experience with the ability to build teams, drive culture, and deliver results.

Key Responsibilities

Lead the UK Sales Organisation

The role is responsible for building, leading, and developing a high‑performing UK sales team, underpinned by a strong culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement. A core focus is to drive capability uplift across negotiation, commercial planning, and customer engagement, ensuring the organisation is equipped to deliver sustainable growth.

Own Customer Relationships and Growth

This role leads senior‑level relationships with key customers across all relevant channels, strengthening Cloetta’s position as a credible, insight‑led partner. Growth is driven through a deep understanding of both customer and consumer dynamics, translating insight into meaningful commercial outcomes.

Deliver Commercial Performance

Full accountability sits with this role for delivering revenue, margin, and profitability targets. It leads the annual planning process, drives forecasting accuracy, and oversees commercial performance management. Disciplined execution of pricing, promotional investment, and commercial terms is critical to achieving results.

Shape Customer and Commercial Strategy

The role translates consumer insight, category understanding, and data into clear commercial priorities. It contributes to the medium‑ and long‑term UK strategy and ensures strong alignment between sales, marketing, and supply chain to deliver a consistent and effective go‑to‑market approach.

UK Leadership Contribution

As an active and influential member of the UK Leadership Team, the role supports the broader UK turnaround agenda beyond sales alone. It plays a key role in driving cross‑functional collaboration and organisational alignment.

Candidate Profile

You are a senior commercial leader with deep UK retail experience, capable of building high‑performing teams and delivering results in a demanding, fast‑moving environment.

Experience & Background

You bring a strong FMCG background, ideally within brand‑led food or beverage businesses, with over ten years of national account management experience across GB retail channels. You have a proven track record of building, leading, and developing sales teams, alongside a deep understanding of the UK retail landscape and well‑established customer relationships. Your commercial credibility is underpinned by a strong track record in annual price negotiations, optimisation of promotional investment, and ownership of the commercial P&L, consistently delivering against financial and strategic objectives.

Capabilities

You demonstrate strong commercial acumen, combined with a disciplined approach to execution. You are an excellent communicator, able to align and mobilise stakeholders across functions and levels. Your presentation skills enable you to influence effectively, both internally and externally. You operate in a highly structured and data‑driven way, with a clear focus on delivery and measurable outcomes.

Personal Style

You bring a strong sense of ownership, with a focus on both delivery and opportunity creation. You are resilient and self‑motivated, with the determination to deliver results in challenging environments. You are also emotionally intelligent, with a natural inclination toward collaboration and an appreciation of the importance of building strong, effective working relationships.

Leadership Style

You demonstrate urgency while remaining calm and measured under pressure. You are able to translate strategy into clear priorities and actionable outcomes, ensuring focus and alignment across the team. You build strong teams grounded in clarity, accountability, and shared ambition, and you communicate consistently to reinforce direction and goals. You actively review performance and take corrective action where needed, while fostering a culture that values shared success and collective achievement.

Why This Role Is Important

This role plays a central part in the turnaround of the UK business. It offers the opportunity to shape the sales culture and redefine customer relationships across the market. You will combine team building, commercial leadership, and delivery, operating as a core member of the UK leadership team with genuine influence and visibility.