Sales Manager in Reading

A highly respected and commercially ambitious UK food manufacturing business is seeking an exceptional Business Development Executive to help drive the next phase of growth across its evolving B2B commercial function. This is a rare opportunity to join a well-established manufacturing organisation supplying into complex food manufacturing environments and to play a genuinely influential role in developing new customer relationships, identifying growth opportunities and strengthening long-term commercial partnerships across the sector.

Importantly, this is not a traditional account management role; it is a new business development role. The organisation already possesses strong manufacturing capability, established customer relationships, respected operational infrastructure and significant technical expertise. What it is now looking to strengthen is its proactive commercial growth capability, somebody capable of identifying opportunities, understanding customer challenges, developing relationships and helping convert prospects into profitable long-term partnerships.

The role has been specifically created to bring greater external focus, customer development, market intelligence and new business capability into an evolving B2B commercial function. For the right individual, this represents an exceptional opportunity to gain broad commercial exposure within a collaborative and fast-paced food manufacturing environment whilst building a long-term career within a commercially ambitious business.

The Opportunity

Operating within the B2B commercial team, you will focus on identifying and developing new commercial opportunities, building relationships with prospective manufacturing and food service customers, understanding market gaps and customer challenges, supporting commercially compelling proposals and helping convert opportunities into profitable long-term business relationships. You will work closely across Commercial, NPD, Technical, Finance, Purchasing, Planning and Operations to ensure opportunities are commercially viable, operationally deliverable and strategically aligned.

This is a highly cross-functional commercial role requiring somebody who enjoys understanding how manufacturing businesses operate, where commercial opportunities exist and how long-term customer relationships are developed. You will spend significant time externally engaging with customers and prospects, understanding their businesses, identifying opportunities and developing strong commercial relationships across the market. The role combines elements of business development, customer engagement, commercial analysis, onboarding support, market insight generation, strategic relationship building and customer growth development.

This opportunity would suit somebody who enjoys being externally visible, commercially curious and proactive in identifying opportunities rather than operating purely within a reactive or heavily account-administration-led environment.

The Type Of Individual Likely To Succeed

The successful individual is likely to be ambitious, commercially curious and motivated by the idea of building long-term customer relationships within a complex manufacturing environment. You will enjoy understanding how businesses operate, identifying gaps and opportunities, asking intelligent commercial questions and developing relationships across multiple stakeholders. This role is unlikely to suit somebody who prefers purely desk-based account administration or heavily process-led commercial support work. Instead, the organisation is looking for somebody who enjoys engaging customers directly, is comfortable operating externally, demonstrates strong commercial instinct and naturally builds credibility and trust with others.

The business is particularly interested in individuals who combine energy, resilience, commercial curiosity, relationship-building capability, strong organisational skills and genuine ambition to develop their commercial career further. Equally important will be the ability to work collaboratively across functions including NPD, Technical, Finance, Operations and Planning. This is a role sitting at the intersection of customer development and operational delivery, meaning strong internal collaboration is just as important as external commercial capability.

Background & Experience

We are particularly interested in speaking with individuals currently operating within food manufacturing, ingredients, flavourings, seasonings, beverage manufacturing, foodservice manufacturing, B2B FMCG or wider manufacturing-led commercial environments. You may currently be working as a Commercial Executive, Sales Executive, Customer Executive, Business Development Executive, Customer Development Executive, Junior Commercial Manager or within another commercially customer-facing environment. Experience engaging with or selling into manufacturing customers would be highly advantageous, particularly within complex food manufacturing or B2B environments. Candidates with exposure to customer development, commercial proposals, manufacturing relationships, NPD collaboration, margin-focused commercial thinking and consultative customer engagement are likely to be particularly well suited.

Academic & Development Background

The organisation is particularly interested in individuals who have built strong commercial foundations early in their career. This may include degree education, formal commercial graduate training schemes, structured FMCG commercial development programmes or broader customer-facing commercial training within manufacturing-led businesses. The successful individual is likely to demonstrate strong commercial acumen, excellent numeracy including expertise in Excel, an analytical capability and the intellectual curiosity to understand both the commercial and operational drivers behind customer relationships. Exposure to areas such as negotiation, customer presentations, commercial analysis, product portfolio management, project coordination or broader commercial planning would all be viewed positively.

Why This Opportunity Stands Out

This opportunity offers the chance to join a business that combines genuine manufacturing capability, established customer relationships, operational agility, collaborative leadership and strong long-term commercial ambition. Unlike larger corporate environments, this role offers broad commercial exposure, visibility across the organisation, close collaboration with senior stakeholders and the opportunity to make a genuine impact within an evolving B2B function. The organisation is looking for somebody capable of growing with the role over time and sees this as an important long-term commercial hire rather than simply a short-term vacancy fill. As the B2B channel continues to evolve, there is genuine opportunity for increased exposure, responsibility and long-term career development.