Responsibilities:
Strategy, performance and P&L governance:
- Own the BU strategy and annual operating plan, translating group priorities into clear initiatives with measurable KPIs.
- Deliver revenue, margin, trade spend ROI and operating cost targets; lead monthly performance reviews and corrective actions.
- Set coverage and expansion priorities (routes, depots/partners, channel focus) and ensure capacity scales in line with demand.
Commercial leadership (General Trade and Modern Trade):
- Lead the national sales agenda across regions: coverage, productivity, compliance to pricing and trade terms, and pipeline discipline.
- Oversee modern trade growth and execution, ensuring agreements translate into store-level availability and merchandising outcomes.
- Ensure price architecture, trade terms and promo plans follow approved guardrails and are consistently implemented.
Operational excellence (distribution and service):
- Oversee warehousing and distribution execution to achieve OTIF, dispatch accuracy, POD discipline, and cost-to-serve targets.
- Ensure disciplined handling of exceptions (shortages, damages, returns-to-depot, claims evidence) with clear accountability and escalation.
- Sponsor continuous improvement across depot operations, fleet/3PL utilization, and route optimization.
Planning, inventory health and supply readiness:
- Ensure planning/imports (where applicable) deliver stable availability with disciplined stock cover and minimal expiries/ageing.
- Chair BU S&OP inputs and align with Group Supply Chain & Inventory Planning on inventory policy and allocation principles.
- Ensure inventory adjustments and write-offs follow evidence, approvals and control requirements.
Governance, controls and risk management:
- Ensure procurement governance (Finance-owned) is respected and approvals are adhered to across the BU.
- Enforce credit/collections discipline in partnership with Finance to protect cash conversion and reduce disputes.
- Partner with Internal Control on high-risk areas (inventory, cash, trade spend, route leakage) and ensure remediation closure.
People leadership:
- Build and lead a high-performance leadership team with clear goals, coaching cadence and succession coverage.
- Drive a strong compliance and safety culture across regions, depots and partner operations.
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, supply chain, economics or a related discipline (an MBA or equivalent is an advantage).
- A minimum of 13–18+ years relevant FMCG/distribution leadership experience, including multi-region sales and operations management.
- Demonstrated P&L ownership and experience running cross-functional leadership teams. Technical skills and competences
- Strong commercial acumen across route-to-market, trade terms, and channel management (General Trade and Modern Trade).
- Operational management capability (warehousing/distribution KPIs, OTIF, cost-to-serve, 3PL governance).
- Working knowledge of planning and inventory health levers (stock cover, ageing, allocation, demand inputs).
- Comfort with data-driven management, performance reviews, and basic ERP/SFA reporting. Behavioural competencies
- High accountability and integrity; strong control mindset.
- Decisive leadership with the ability to resolve cross-functional trade-offs quickly.
- Execution intensity with disciplined follow-through.
- Strong stakeholder management and communication.
Working Conditions:
- Full-time, primarily on-site with frequent travel across regions and depots.
- Peak workload during seasonal demand spikes and major trade programmes.
- High confidentiality requirements due to pricing, customer terms and financial exposure.
Benefits:
- Compensation is competitive and aligned to level and experience.
- Health cover, leave, tools of work, and travel support as
