International Business Development Manager

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COMPANY OVERVIEW

Creightons is the brand trading name of Creightons plc, a UK based health and beauty specialist established for over 50 years and listed on the London Stock exchange. Creightons brands are present in over 50 Countries worldwide operating directly with many of the best and largest health and beauty specialist retailers across the globe such as AS Watson, Walgreens Boots, Sainsburys, Tesco and Asda.

The company has a reputation for exceptional customer service and consistently leads the way forward in product and brand development. They are award winning with customers for service, quality, and innovation.

Are you looking for a great career in the beauty industry? Look no further than Creightons and our award-winning portfolio of highly innovative, trend led brands - all manufactured in our own factories in the UK.

BRANDS

Ranging in format and market position within several key health + beauty categories including; personal bath, shower and bodycare, skincare, haircare and well-being. Our core award winning brands include Feather & Down, Balance Active Formula, T Zone, The Curl Company, Janina and Creightons.

ROLE DESCRIPTION

We're looking for a proven passionate Business Development Manager for a dynamic growing brand owner with a unique portfolio of trend led beauty brands. Already over 40% of brand sales come from international markets and we have Strategic plans in place to continue strong growth in existing international markets as well as entering new white space markets.

The Business Development Managers role will be responsible for all sales and commercial elements of the customer relationship with key retailers and distributors. The key objective is to drive brand penetration in target markets whilst managing a positive P&L. We are looking for someone who ideally has business development management experience in direct to retail international business -ideally into drugstore, grocery and pharmacy. Experience of managing distributors would also be useful but not a necessity as our primary growth will come from direct to retail expansion. This represents a great opportunity to work in a very exciting and innovative business in strong growth.

The portfolio will be a mix of early stage pipeline prospects with high potential and a strategic and dynamic selection of targets in key markets worldwide. Targets are mainly direct to retail, but some will be distributor partners where the market dynamic requires this. The ideal candidate will undertake market reviews to create market entry plans for the right target markets in combination with the relevant brand managers. Current core markets are Scandinavia, South East Asia, Middle East, Australia and South America. Next stage strategic targets include Germany, Spain, the middle East and selected south east Asia targets. The USA and China remain long term strategic targets.

The ability to demonstrate direct to retail and effective management of distributor partners across a number of markets is essential.

The role reports into Head of Global Sales. The role will be home working with regular visits to Peterborough head office at least every two weeks for 1 to 2 days.

The ideal candidate for the role will possess a combination of lead generation, door opening and the ability to onboard new customers in the early lifecycle.

Role Objective

The International BDM will;

1. Recommend and scope retailer and market targets globally
2. Utilise available resources to establish contacts with new targets, gain initials meetings to pitch the relevant brands from the portfolio
3. Agree commercial terms to commence and support initial trading
4. Meet sales growth and margin targets for early pipeline and high potential customers

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

Commercial and Sales Management

• Initiate and drive a strategic sales plan in each targeted region to provide an ongoing pipeline of growth opportunities. Execution of plan in tandem with brand team - from door opening (via trade shows/buyer events/direct contact) through to securing listings with agreed customer specific terms

• Focus on further developing core high growth potential customers through the early lifecycle before handing over to Key Account manager to continue positive momentum

• Assessing new target markets - understanding key market dynamics - beauty market breakdown by channel - assessing key retailers within the channel to produce matrix of targets.

• Full profit and loss management for each key account - producing two year go to market strategies including relevant execution investment to maximise potential for successful launches

• Price and investment negotiation with customers to agreed profitability targets

• Management of customer terms and brand trade marketing investment (with brand manager)

• For key accounts produce activation plans including;
  1. Merchandising - shelf location
  2. Distribution (number of stores)
  3. Promotional plans utilising all relevant options within that retailer
  4. Range - ensuring optimum sku range

• Managing product commercially throughout its lifecycle ( impact of cost increases / change of specification)

• Produce and manage sales budget to include sales/ margin and retailer/market investment and profitability summaries

• Tracking adherence to sales budget and reporting to the business shortfalls / gains. Managing up front potential risks / opportunities.

Customer Management

• Generating leads for target retailers - assessing best route to market options - ideally direct to retail but also assessing other options such as trade shows, buyer events, trade and Government bodies. Within this assessing need for local presence in market - distributors, agents or brokers

• Management of distributors - some markets require distributors - requirement is to effectively manage distributors via targets and agreements to execute to an agreed plan.

• Responsible for leading the generation, preparation and delivery of customer presentations. This includes product rationales, product positioning, competitive gap analysis, and price architecture definition.

• Day to day customer interface - driving and owning all meetings / calls including all meeting preparation and meeting minutes together with issuing and ensuring follow through is actioned and closed off.

Order /Stock Management

• Forecasting demand including promotional activity. To include launch forecasts, including final store numbers and pipe fill.

• Monitoring EPOS ROS performance - identifying issues and developing/implementing corrective action plans

• Gather intelligence of activities which will impact base forecast (promotions / additional space / seasonality) and manage through the forecast into the business.

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

Attributes - role specific

• Strong hunter mentality combined with exceptional organisational abilities to systematically establish rapport with key sales leads
• Commercially astute and creative to generate win-win solutions
• Driven
• Robust and tenacious
• Passionate
• Team player and team leader
• Excellent communication skills
• Insightful - able to identify opportunities and creative ways to open doors and prospect first stage dialogue
• Flexible approach able to react to change positively
• Excellent prioritisation and time management skills

Attributes - cultural

• Every day is dynamic, different, and empowered so that all make a difference.
• Owning our areas and driving them through to success is what brings us joy. Responsibility is liberating - it doesn't always go to plan, but we learn and go again.
• Tenacious & resilient.
• We love to communicate - more discussion makes for better ideas and even greater solutions. We truly believe in the power of the team.
• Flexible approach able to react to change positively
• Excellent prioritisation and time management skills

Professional Experience & Qualifications

• Evidence of driving and managing brands in international markets predominantly through direct to retail (versus distributors) of at least 5 years
• Languages other than English desirable
• Ideally experience within health/beauty industry, minimum of FMCG background
• Management of multiple product types across multiple categories within key retail accounts
• Highly proficient in MS Office systems including Excel, PowerPoint and Word.
• Full Driving Licence