Discounter Channel Lead

Hershey is a fast‑growing confectionary company within the UK, aiming to drive growth across all channels ahead of the category. We are looking for a driven & ambitious individual to join our team to help deliver the growth ambitions we have for the UK market, with focus on our leading brand Reese’s. This role is responsible for leading the Discounter Channel (Aldi & Lidl); working with our UK distributor & cross‑functionally within Hershey to ensure continued profitable sales growth.

The role will focus on revenue delivery in terms of net sales, gross profit, category/market share and operating income by developing and executing business plans, working closely with Marketing, Finance and Supply Chain. This role will be working hand in hand with our established distributor team on the ground & the respective National Account Managers from the distributors. This role is responsible for achieving channel and customer profitability (via management of all promotional spend & other sales budgets) as well as market share and distribution goals. The role is also responsible for the coaching and development of National Account Managers at our distributor.

The role requires an individual who is a brilliant communicator, strategic thinker and highly commercial to ensure the development of robust growth strategies for the channel & enable us to partner for growth with our key customers. Given the scale of opportunity within the UK we also require an individual who can rigorously prioritise, inspire others behind ideas, and demonstrate drive and tenacity to deliver results. It is essential that this individual is close to market trends & understanding the Discount channel dynamics, to ensure insights are shared and utilized to optimize future performance.

Major Duties/Responsibilities

• Market Strategies and Execution: Defines and grows the base business through effective sales & customer marketing strategies at trade level. Clearly executes: “where to play” and “how to win” trade, customer and shopper programs that deliver the outcomes required with clear marketing, sales and financial deliverables. The role leads customer marketing, field sales, and Supply Chain in delivering profitable growth for key customers in the Discount Channel (via UK distributor). Execute the plan for geographic, channel and customer priorities and what it will take to deliver against the strategies – he or she is the key communicator of this at all forums. Communicates and consistently monitors progress of the execution of the strategy with internal and external stakeholders. Develops and executes joint business plans with distributor partners and identifies key customers within channels.
• Distributor Management: Oversees the delivery of the sales goals through team at the distributor through well defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The KPIs reflect and show sales strategies being executed as planned across the market. KPIs include but are not limited to: gross invoice sales, in-country sales, promotional spend, distributor trade inventory. The role owns the delivery of the sales KPIs. Externally, the role is the main driver of the distributor relationship – the main driver of joint business performance.
• Customer Marketing, Finance: Delivers the agreed market strategies in‑outlets. The role articulates and delivers to marketing partners ideas, positions and insights that will deliver the right positioning, price, product, promotion and place for the channel. Co‑owns and co‑leads the execution of a healthy P&L for each channel which includes but is not limited to: total business, brands, channel and customer P&Ls as well as sales to expense and controllable SG&A lines.
• People Management: The role is a key participant in the development of the in‑market talent and strategies. Internally, this role is responsible for the creation of and execution of sales incentives and where appropriate, incentives for the distributor for their respective channels.
• Strategic Agility: Thinks strategically by clearly anticipating future trends, challenges, and consequences, creating breakthrough strategies and plans to achieve a competitive advantage, and proactively adjusting strategies and plans in order to sustain a competitive advantage.
• Business Acumen: Understands how businesses work including how strategies and tactics work in the marketplace. Maintains working knowledge of competitors as well as current and possible future policies, practices, trends and information affecting his/her business and organization.
• Drive for Results: Pushes self and others to exceed goals and achieve breakthrough results. Recognizes the key actions necessary to achieve results; establishes and communicates the priorities to others; and, maintains own and others focus on achieving the important goals. Demonstrates persistence in overcoming roadblocks to achieving results and encourages others to do the same.
• Problem Solving and Decision Making: Uses a systematic process to solve difficult problems including gathering and examining information from a variety of sources; identifying the root cause of problems; drawing appropriate conclusions; generating viable solutions; and, weighing the pros and cons to arrive at a final decision. Makes decisions in a timely manner, sometimes with incomplete information and under tight deadlines and pressure.
• Process Management: Identifies the processes required to accomplish work tasks; simplifies and integrates processes and work tasks to enable efficient work flow; utilizes best practices to organize people and activities; measures results against key metrics; uses resources efficiently.
• Building Talent Capability: Builds talent capability throughout the organization through recruitment, performance management, workforce planning, succession planning, career development, and diversity initiatives. Partners with the business and HR to forecast future talent needs and develop clear objectives and processes for Succession Planning. Supports the business and HR in identifying key talent/hi-potentials, providing a set of integrated tools and assessment processes to support the placement, development and calibration of key talent. Develops policies and programs for effective management of the people resources of the corporation.

Minimum knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully perform major duties/responsibilities:

• Deep knowledge and exposure to sales and account management
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; strong interpersonal and presentation skills
• Experience operating in cross‑functional teams
• Distributor management (helpful but not essential)

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree.
• Minimum of 5 years experience in sales, Key Account Management & FMCG specifically – ideally working with Discounters in the UK market previously.
• Demonstrated ability in key functional tasks and a clear progression or expansion of areas of responsibility or increase in business size and complexity.