Vice President Retail Sales

Del Monte Foods, Inc. (DMFI) is a multi-national food company headquartered in Walnut Creek, CA, with a powerful portfolio of brands, including iconic Del Monte®, Contadina® and College Inn®. Our premium-quality meal ingredients, snacks and beverages can be found in six out of ten U.S. households.

At Del Monte Foods, we believe in supporting one another. In helping our people shape their own careers - in letting them grow outward, upward and across disciplines. We are tending to the greater good, providing accessible, nourishing, great-tasting food for all. We are Del Monte Foods – Growers of Good.

Responsibilities:

The Vice President of Retail Sales will set and lead both the strategy and execution of the retail channels and customers for Del Monte Foods, Inc. They will lead four Sr Directors of Sales: West Grocery, East Grocery, Emerging Channels, and National Accounts. Costco, Target, Kroger, Publix, Albertsons, and Ahold/Delhaize will be the larger customers, in addition to building out mid-tier grocery channel along with the small format channels.

This individual will develop strategic plans and lead both a direct team and brokers to execute all matters relating to our merchandising agendas. In addition, they will lead the efforts of acquiring and delivering consumer and category insights. They will also lead efforts to acquire new customers and business opportunities, creating the future vision for the Retail business of Del Monte Foods as it relates to the company’s customers, go-to-market strategies, value-added product development, processes and market-based initiatives.

This position is responsible for developing new strategic business relationships to support the profitable revenue growth of the Company. The role will be responsible for reporting on a regular basis to both the DMFI board and Executive Leadership Team. The Vice President of Retail Sales will play a crucial role in shaping and guiding the future growth and development of Del Monte Foods. He/she will take the company to a heightened level of collaboration between customers and suppliers and the development and execution of organizational policies. This role will enhance company performance, increase revenue, profits, distribution and will serve as a visionary and energetic leader to create a winning and sustainable culture.

The VP will directly lead and oversee a team comprised of direct reports of selling, insight, and other roles. In addition, this person will be working cross functionally with the BU’s, innovation, supply chain, and finance on a regular basis.

This remote position can be located in any of the following US states, near a major airport: AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, MI, MN, NJ, NC, NE, NV, OH, OR, PA, TN, TX, VA, WA, WI.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategy Development: Establish a clear vision and strategy that will expand and secure new distribution of Del Monte Foods products in both established channels and emerging channels such as Natural, Dollar, C-store, Drug, and others. They will be responsible for elevating the brand, improving profit and supporting the sales of the company. Identify short and long-range growth opportunities based on an in-depth understanding of the competitive landscape, marketplace dynamics, consumer habits and behaviors and company strategies. Identify new avenues of distribution that could generate highly profitable revenue streams.
• Annual Operating Plan Development: Develop and gain alignment on annual operating plans that deliver progress toward long-range goals while delivering annual sales, profit, share, and market development targets.
• Volume/Profit Delivery: Manage execution of sales and investment activities to achieve volume / profit objectives in-line with quotas and within budget, including trade spending and SG&A. Direct the comparisons and benchmarking of costs to identify and deliver on cost reduction opportunities and key improvement projects. Provides strong direction with our Business Unit leaders for pricing, promotion, and product agenda.
• Market Expansion/Business Development: Lead efforts to develop and expand business at both current and new customers and in both current and emerging areas of the retail marketplace. Serve as a sounding board to the Executive Team and Board regarding these business strategies.
• Customer Management: Cultivate a customer-focused culture and exploit new market opportunities. Effectively penetrate customer at appropriate level and collaboratively generate and execute joint business plans. Maintain a strong understanding of retail marketing, and gain brand and category knowledge to grow and develop categories. Own senior level executive relationships at our Top10 customers directly.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Partner cross-functionally to effectively execute against business plans and deliver service in-line with customer expectations. Effectively communicate customer strategy, objectives and direction to help guide innovation efforts (products, marketing, merchandising, etc.) in collaboration with cross-functional partners (Customer Strategy & Development, Innovation, Marketing, Operations, Finance, etc.).
• Team Management: Lead and develop a team of direct / indirect reports, manage broker partners and partner cross-functionally to deliver execution and achieve both short and long-term goals. Identify and support the development of high-potential employees to prepare them for positions of greater responsibility in support of applicable functions. Hire, train and develop talent to support strategic needs of the team. Instill a positive work environment for team members.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• BA/BS required; MBA preferred.
• Overall 15+ years’ experience; 10+ years within CPG industry.
• Visionary, positive and energetic leader with a strong sense of urgency to create a sustainable winning culture.
• Proven record of success in selling, winning and growing the national retail business in consumer-packaged goods industry, ideally, someone who has previously led or called on the major channels and strategic customers nationally.
• Innovative thinker with strong quantitative analysis skills to identify competition, consumer and customer trends as well as an ability to identify new business development initiatives.
• Proven record of opening and developing the Retail channel of business from the ground up as well as building out new revenue avenues with existing customers.
• Excellent sales management background, negotiation skills and interpersonal skills.
• Strong, strategic mindset and approach to business coupled with tactical execution skills.
• Utilize industry knowledge and expertise to identify potential revenue opportunities through networking and aggressive field sales techniques, leveraging knowledge of market and industry trends, competitors, and leading customer strategies.
• Ability to work cross functionally and at all levels of management both internally and externally.
• Highly developed influencing and collaboration-building skills to meld the diverse components of the company together to achieve its common goal.
• Ability to understand and analyze business trends and translate insights into strategy.
• Genuine interest in the people and contributions made by others external to self / team members.
• Ability to think and lead strategically.
• Strong computer proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint.

Del Monte Foods Leadership Behaviors:

As leaders we:

Ground Our Teams

• Connect our teams to a clear strategy.
• Provide the support our teams need for success.
• Hold ourselves and our teams accountable.

Create the Climate

• Solve problems together with our teams.
• Enable smart risk taking.
• Empower our teams to make decisions and take action.

Nurture the Good

• Are intentional about building trust.
• Lead with empathy.
• Grow and develop our teams.

WE OFFER:

• Competitive salary.
• Comprehensive benefits package including Medical, Dental, Vision, and 401(k).

Please be advised that your application is not complete until you fill out, sign, and submit an Application for Employment for a specific position for which Del Monte Foods, Inc. is actively recruiting. Your application must reflect that you possess the required qualifications for the position.

• No sponsorship is available for this position.
• No agencies or 3rd party vendors.