National Commercial Manager- Southern Africa

UPL Limited (NSE: UPL & BSE: 512070, LSE: UPLL) is a global provider of sustainable agriculture products and solutions, with annual revenue exceeding $6bn. We are a purpose-led company. Through OpenAg, UPL is focused on accelerating progress for the food system. We are building a network that is reimagining sustainability, redefining the way an entire industry thinks and works – open to fresh ideas, innovation, and new answers as we strive towards our mission to make every single food product more sustainable. As one of the largest agriculture solutions companies worldwide, our robust portfolio consists of biologicals and traditional crop protection solutions with more than 14,000 registrations. We are present in more than 130 countries, represented by more than 10,000 colleagues globally. For more information about our integrated portfolio of solutions across the food value chain including seeds, post-harvest, as well as physical and digital services, please visit upl-ltd.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Job Title: National Commercial Manager – Southern Africa

Location: Durban, Southern Africa

Geography: South Africa, Eswatini, Namibia and Lesotho

Role Summary:

To manage and oversee the South African (geographical scope) commercial interest and deliver on the UPL financial expectations. To ensure the business interests of UPL are managed in the region with sustainable customer satisfaction being the primary goal, by managing, organizing and directing employees and establishing, monitoring and managing organizational goals and direction.

Role Responsibilities:

Commercial

1. Manage relationships with Distributer Heads, Head office staff and your team members in your geographical scope.
2. Manage Sales staff activities in your geographical scope.
3. Deliver on growth expectations in your geographical scope, with ongoing analysis of the region to identify opportunities and make proposals.
4. Set budgets per Sales area in line with business budget.
5. Act as a director on share-holding boards and provide the boards with advice.

Forecasting

1. Manage and analyse forecast by customer and forecast accuracy tracking.
2. Forecast vs. Budget alignment.
3. Improvement of company forecast accuracy.
4. Monitoring Price/Volume/Sales/GP (actual vs forecast vs LY) to achieve budget.
5. Commercial & Supply Chain Alignment.

Marketing

1. Close collaboration with Marketing Department to align on projects.
2. Implementation of agreed Marketing Plans.
3. Collaborate with marketing on client incentives.
4. Create a strategy to develop high margin products to their maximum.
5. Marketing Intelligence (Interact with distributors and agents in getting information about competition and market).

People

1. Adhere to all HR policies, procedures and requirements to ensure sound people practices.
2. Day to day management of your team’s activities.
3. Develop employees based on identified training needs in accordance with the Workplace Skills Plan.
4. Ensure general discipline in the department and ensure corrective action is taken on all misconduct incidents.
5. Ensure Performance Appraisals are conducted as per Company Policy.
6. Ensure the Department is fully staffed with appropriately experienced employees.

Pricing

1. Regular analysis of opposition pricing for your region.
2. Determine pricing per product and develop pricing strategy.
3. Manage tender approvals and costing management.
4. Monitor Tender volumes/pricing as per tender submission.
5. Monthly Pricelist maintenance.

Sales (B2B & B2C)

1. Deliver Quarterly and Annual Sales and GP budget in your geographical region.
2. Analysis and tracking of sales vs. budget.
3. Sales and Distribution Strategy for the territory.
4. Setting of consignment stock thresholds and management of consignment stock levels where applicable.

Technical

1. Identify high value product or label gaps in the market and help develop Business cases for development.
2. Technical support (technical training of distributor agents, agent/farm visits, field visits and farmer days).
3. Manage complaints handling and liaison with Technical Department.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience Required:

1. BSC Agric degree (or similar).
2. MBA will be an advantage.
3. 15+ years’ experience in Agricultural Chemical environment.

Behavioural Requirements:

1. Attention to detail and capable to grasp context and impact of the market/sales.
2. Conscientious and diligent.
3. Ability to deal with adversity (Resilience).
4. Low/No tolerance for mediocrity.
5. Drive delivery of results & process optimization in continuous improvement mindset.
6. Persuasion and good listening skills.

UPL Competencies:

1. Adaptability & Resilience: Recognizes and is open to changing circumstances and alters behavior and scales up as necessary; increases personal awareness and appreciation of individual and cultural differences to create an open, inclusive, and accepting workplace.
2. Entrepreneurial Mindset: Has a creative mindset and ability to think holistically, takes calculated risks and maximizes opportunities.
3. Results Orientations: Acts, pursues goals with persistence and achieves results; communicates goals and vision to the team to drive enthusiasm and ambition.
4. Execution Excellence: Enhances the speed of execution and builds efficiency in processes, systems, and people; has sharp focus on quality-orientation.
5. Strategic Orientation: Demonstrates knowledge of the social, economic, and environmental factors and how they impact the business. Identifies key issues that could impact the business and develops strategy through an analytical lens/design thinking.
6. Building Teams and Talent: Empowers colleagues through knowledge sharing and delegation, quickly establishing rapport; provides recognition for achievements and accomplishments.
7. Customer Centricity: Understands the customer needs and pain points, fulfills the needs and expectations by focusing on creating value for customers.