Senior Commercial Manager in Hampshire, Portsmouth

Company: Leading Private Label Food Business

Size: Large/UK Market Leader.

Role: Senior Commercial Manager

Level: Senior.

Based: Home-Based. UK Wide.

Offer: Attractive Salary + Car Allowance + Bonus + Pen + Phi

The Client

As one of the UK’s Fastest Growing Own Label Food Groups, our client has an impressive track record of success and an exceptionally bright future across several categories. The strategic goals are to grow through both strong organic development combined with “Smart Acquisitions” on both a UK and potential International basis. In order to achieve this, they commit strong levels of investment into both Food Development and Leading Category solutions. Their offering is both sophisticated and premium in nature and subsequently has become a real product of choice for many discerning consumers; which is further supported through unrivalled taste and traceability. As part of their continued growth, they now wish to appoint a Senior Commercial Manager to one of their Key Business Units.

The Role

This is a career-defining opportunity to take full commercial ownership of a high-value, high-profile customer relationship within one of the UK’s most dynamic Own Label chilled and Frozen food categories. Operating at the intersection of strategic thinking and commercial execution, you’ll be responsible for delivering sustainable growth and margin improvement in a category where premium quality, innovation, and agility are critical.

Reporting to the Sales Director, you’ll act as the commercial lead across one of their most strategically important retailer accounts. This is a fast-moving, intellectually demanding role requiring someone who thrives on complexity, can see the bigger commercial picture, and knows how to align internal functions to deliver exceptional customer outcomes.

You will:

• Lead the customer relationship with full P&L responsibility — not just at gross margin level but right through to contribution-to-profit.
• Influence cross-functional teams — supply chain, marketing, technical, category, NPD, and finance — to deliver account-specific initiatives aligned to both commercial and strategic goals.
• Take ownership for developing and delivering annual Joint Business Plans (JBPs), working collaboratively with your customer and internal teams to drive shared value and growth.
• Play a critical role in new product development — ensuring your category pipeline is fresh, commercially viable and aligned to consumer insight and retailer strategy.
• Lead internal forecasting, pricing, promotional planning and scenario analysis with commercial rigour and responsiveness to change.
• Be a key voice at the table — you’ll contribute to wider business planning and be a senior figure in cross-functional meetings and executive reviews.
• Manage and develop a National Account Executive / Junior NAM, acting as both mentor and performance driver.
• Deliver insightful post-launch reviews, promotional ROI evaluations and category-led recommendations to grow share and optimise the product mix.
• Operate with pace, precision, and emotional intelligence in a role that requires senior-level influence both internally and externally.

This is not a “steady-state” account role; it’s a commercially stretching position where your ability to balance long-term strategy with fast tactical execution will be tested daily. You’ll need to bring vision, resilience, and a results-driven mindset.

Candidate Requirements

The ideal candidate will have gained strong experience in Leading Own Label Customer Accounts within the FMCG industry, as this role provides a real opportunity to “fast-track” your career to Controller status within leading UK Food Business. Additionally, the client is also willing to consider dynamic candidates who could be at a slightly more Junior level, but you must be clearly leading your “peer group” and be ready for the greatest challenge of your career to date.