Sales Executive

Job Location : Gauteng, Johannesburg

Deadline : March 12, 2025

Purpose of the Role

• Reporting to the MD SAF, and a key member of the SAF SLT, this role will be responsible to deliver a top line growth [VOL & NSV] with accretive GP%. It will involve working with internal stakeholders, ensuring the marketing team deliver the short and long-term goals (to be aligned) for the Business Unit. It is responsible for developing, aligning and driving the overall marketing strategy, category growth and brand equity that supports the SAF BU ambitions. This role has a dotted line connection with the APACSA Marketing VP to ensure best practice deployment of Global and Regional initiatives relevant for SAF.
• The key results areas will be to reassess the business potential of all portfolios, understand our offering vs the consumer needs and demand spaces, and realign the portfolio, pricing, and promotion for growth. This role will also entail working closely with customers and aligning the plans with the Sales Director which are a win-win for all.

Key Responsibilities :

P&L, Brand, Category Strategy, Planning & Management

• Develop & articulate a clear and innovative long-term Marketing Strategy that ensures marketing leadership and brand differentiation, aligning to our Global Vision 2030. Lead the team in executing the shorter term [current FY] Brand Plans aligned to the longer-term strategy by outlining a clear roadmap & aligned targets to achieve the agreed business targets. In partnership with the Sales Director, deliver the Commercial Review plans for the coming FY as part of Q3 QBR annually.
• Know the competitor, their strengths, product benefits & superiority vs McCain and our areas to focus on for competitive edge. Aligning with R&D on product Stewardship requirements & deliverables.
• Build collaborative partnerships with key customers.
• Oversee brand positioning, messaging, and identity, ensuring consistency across all consumer touchpoints. Drive initiatives that enhance brand equity and loyalty. Manage timely ROI analysis of media spending and conduct agency reviews and RFP's where needed. Ensure APACSA and Global alignment on communication plan including packaging.
• Oversee and lead Portfolio Strategy to ensure consumer and customer insights are at the heart of decision making and there is a clear roadmap to profitability. Ensure each SKU has a purpose & role within the portfolio to drive consumer household or customer consumption / purchase and frequency of use. Make tough decisions to improve overall portfolio health.
• Drive the ownership and the language of the McCain tools of Marketing@McCain and Demand Spaces, to ensure the team identify opportunities, develop compelling category stories, formulate penetration objectives and go to market strategies on innovation, communication and activation.
• Integrate sustainability and social responsibility initiatives into marketing strategies, aligning with corporate values and meeting the expectations of socially conscious consumers.
• Conduct in-depth market research and analysis to identify emerging trends, consumer behaviours, and competitive landscapes. Utilise insights to inform longer term marketing strategies and stay ahead of market shifts.
• Combine and apply advanced data analysis techniques to draw robust conclusions to complex problems.
• Lead the Consumer Insights Team to unlock powerful consumer and customer insights that will drive growth. Ruthlessly prioritise Big Bets and steer the team to activate against those.
• Drive innovative thinking in ways to connect with the consumer and customer by reviewing global and local best practice ideas in order to drive greater awareness, consideration and brand purchase. Be edgy, test and learn.
• Develop hypothesis thinking behaviour to ensure team members are analysing all the data sources available and cross fertilising information into insights.
• Together with the R&D lead, ensure that the teams are prioritising the development of the portfolios looking for growth leavers.
• Oversee all Innovations proposals to ensure they are incremental and accretive to GP, based on deep consumer insights.
• Champion the ILT / PMR and other innovation processes to lead ensure progression of projects.
• Oversee Project Teams effectiveness & remove barriers to innovation by thinking differently to solve the problems including Capex / Cutter suggestions.
• Proactively set targets to reduce costs & complexity in the supply chain and improve / maintain the customer or consumer offering.
• Review Global and APACSA NPD pipelines to lift & adapt locally and to build into Capex request of the future based on business case.

Leadership and Stakeholder Management

• Inspire and lead a high-performing marketing team, providing mentorship, guidance, and fostering a collaborative and creative work environment that increases team engagement.
• Build partnerships and effective relationships with key stakeholders (internal and external).
• Build partnerships with APACSA Marketing and similar roles in other McCain markets.
• Demonstrate courage to take right yet tough business decisions, align and influence the key stakeholders.
• Lead by example with McCain Leadership Principles, and ensure compliance with McCain Foods policies, procedures and values including protection of IP, legal compliance, risk management, and food / product regulations.
• Influence and drive accountability, transparency, and be a change agent across McCain Foods, clear roadblocks as required.
• Lead change and drive culture of decision making and execution excellence.

Job Holder Requirements :

Qualification & Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree (Marketing / Business), MBA preferred.
• 15+ years of experience in Marketing, ideally in Food.
• Sound commercial and financial acumen and exposure to managing the variables that impact GP% i.e. Trade spend, pricing, promotion, COGS and A&P.
• Extensive knowledge of the external economic and business environment. Insight of the latest national and international business trends and how they impact on the entire organisation.
• High degree of tenacity and persistence to get actions completed on schedule through the team.
• Effective influencing, collaboration skills with demonstrated success in managing change.
• High / effective presentation skills, underpinned by right level of materials.
• Negotiation and influencing skills to inspire results.
• Be able to respond well to pressure and work autonomously within a high performing, fast paced business.
• Proven ability to lead teams into high performance.
• Engage and influence senior leadership to steer right decisions.
• Champion McCain Marketing tools and apply the language in all internal and global McCain meetings.
• Sales / Retail / Business Development jobs.