Senior Customer Manager, Retail

In every role, McCainers are ambitious, curious, and passionate about creating exceptional work experiences - together. With a customer-first mindset, we make doing business with McCain easy.

About the role.

At McCain, we’re proud to work with some of the UK’s biggest and most exciting retailers – and we’re looking for a driven, commercially savvy Senior Customer Manager to take the lead. Reporting to the Director of Customer Development and working alongside a team of Customer Managers, you’ll be responsible for managing and developing strategic retail customer relationships, delivering mutual growth that outperforms the market. This is a key leadership role – you’ll be at the heart of our customer growth strategy, owning the delivery of a joint business plan and full P&L, while collaborating across the business to bring real value to our retail partners.

What you’ll be doing.

• Customer Leadership & Strategic Growth

• Build and manage trusted, long-term partnerships with key UK retail customers.
• Lead the creation and delivery of annual joint business plans with a sharp focus on volume, net sales and market share growth.
• Drive customer strategy internally, ensuring all teams are aligned and set up for success.
• Influence key stakeholders across McCain to implement meaningful change.

• Own the customer P&L, delivering accurate forecasts and driving profitable growth.
• Track, measure and evaluate weekly performance, identifying opportunities and risks.
• Design, negotiate and deliver a 12-month promotional calendar that supports brand and category growth.
• Input plans and forecasts into systems to support supply chain and financial accuracy.

• Work with customer marketing to deliver space and availability plans.
• Collaborate with category teams to deliver wins through data-led insights.
• Develop and deliver persuasive NPD presentations, securing listings through strong commercial and category rationale.
• Partner with supply chain teams to ensure operational excellence and efficient volume management.

• Play a key role in future planning, shaping a bold 3-year customer vision.
• Support wider business projects, sharing customer insight and contributing to overall commercial strategy.
• Lead and coach others, promoting a growth mindset and encouraging open, solution-focused thinking.

What you’ll need to be successful.

You’ll already have experience in account management within FMCG – ideally across brand and/or own label. But just as important is your ability to lead, inspire, and set the tone for others. You’ll be someone who:

• Leads by example, with a proactive, positive approach and a focus on solutions.
• Champions collaboration, growth and learning within the team.
• Supports and coaches others, creating a culture of accountability and development.
• Brings solid commercial awareness and a curious, insight-driven mindset.
• Has experience in business planning and project management.
• Is confident using category management data sources.
• Builds strong relationships and influences with credibility.
• Has strong numeracy, literacy, and Excel skills.
• Holds a full UK driving licence.

Benefits of the role.

Although we do encourage you to taste the goods you’ll be pleased to know we don’t pay you in chips. For working hard, you’ll also get a great salary and some pretty good benefits including:

• Generous car allowance.
• Performance related bonus.
• An achievable yearly bonus based on personal performance.
• An excellent pension where we will pay double what you do, up to a maximum of 12% of your pay.
• Flexible holidays – where you can buy & sell up to 5 days holiday per year.
• Optional health cash plan.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• ‘Chips In’ Volunteering Day Off - to make a positive impact to the competitiveness, resilience, and long-term development of McCain communities across the globe.

And of course, being part of a Global business there are great opportunities to shine/thrive should you wish to relocate in the future. We have an ambitious 5 year growth plan that presents development & progression opportunities for those who seek it out.

About the team.

The Retail Sales team at McCain is made up of three closely connected functions – Sales, Category, and Demand. Each customer and channel benefits from dedicated support across all three functions, with daily collaboration to share insight and drive results. We are a winning team, and we’re proud to say we finished top in The Advantage Group across all categories for the 5th year running.

Where will I work.

Being in the office every single day is a thing of the past. Here at McCain, we champion hybrid working. This means we don’t have a set expectation of exactly when you need to be in the office – however we do encourage our full-time, office-based people to connect in person with others for around half of their working time as that’s the best way for us to build and maintain our connections. Our head office (Customer Experience Centre) is on the outskirts of Scarborough – 1.5 hours away from Leeds City Centre, and about an hour from York. We have lots of colleagues who travel to and from our Experience Centre (even if it is just for a good coffee!) and because hybrid really does mean hybrid at McCain, they get the opportunity to collaborate with their colleagues when they’re in the office, and balance that with working from home to ensure they get a good life-work balance.

Leadership principles.

At McCain, our leadership principles guide how we engage with customers, collaborate as a team, and achieve success. We focus on understanding customer needs, driving innovation, empowering people, and taking ownership to clear obstacles and deliver results.

The McCain experience.

We are McCain. This statement is a testament to our collective strength and our individual value. Your contributions play a vital role in our success. Our winning culture is rooted in authenticity and trust, empowering us to bring out the best in one another. Here, you’ll find opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive. Join us and experience why we’re better together.

McCain Foods is an equal opportunity employer. We see value in ensuring we have a diverse, antiracist, inclusive, merit-based, and equitable workplace. As a global family-owned company we are proud to reflect the diverse communities around the world in which we live and work. We recognize that diversity drives our creativity, resilience, and success and makes our business stronger.

McCain is an accessible employer. If you require an accommodation throughout the recruitment process (including alternate formats of materials or accessible meeting rooms), please let us know and we will work with you to meet your needs.

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