Solent Group work with a diverse portfolio of Retailers and supply bespoke products within various categories, including Health & Beauty, Household Impulse Snacking and Reusable Bags. We are proud to be best-in-class when it comes to own-label product innovation. Our Categories are fast-paced with ever-evolving trends and a host of ground-breaking products coming to market on a regular basis – we add value to retailers by leading and owning each category.

Here at Solent we want people to be extraordinary. We pride ourselves on creating and producing amazing products and brands for our Global Customers. You will be joining a company with offices globally across South Africa, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Vietnam, and the UK.

Department: Commercial

Reporting to: National Account Controller

Location: Christchurch, UK, Flexibility to work from home up to 4 days per week*

Purpose of the role

With our entrepreneurial spirit and drive to succeed we need a dynamic National Account Manager to build relationships with our customers. You’ll develop existing accounts and look for new business to add to our already prestigious portfolio. You will plan and oversee all aspects of the projects and meet the desired goals. You will oversee the organisation and scheduling of people, tasks and resources.

Main Responsibilities

• Bring your passion and enthusiasm to grow existing clients, alongside generating new business
• Live the Solent Values and work with your teams to drive the Vision
• Work with all departments to ensure customer strategy is met
• Formulate customer-specific sales plan/strategy, in-line with accountable budget, ensure costings are pre-checked and spec, packaging and recommended retail prices are correct
• You will be working independently alongside a pre-set sales strategy to achieve account-specific budgets
• Understand customer KPIs, and targets and review performance, with knowledge and proposals to reach category standards
• Relentlessly pioneer the future and pursue ambitious growth opportunities for your customers
• Be resourceful and employ innovative solutions to deliver value, gross margin & volume targets for your customers
• Contribute to the wider sales team and support other colleagues with their accounts. Share your ideas and help contribute to team goals and ambitions
• Assigning, monitoring and coordinating project milestones and progress, with both internal and external stakeholders
• Lead and plan the implementation of the project (resource, relationship, allocation)
• Manage high volume SKU level CPA's (over 200 SKUs in totality)
• Ensure visibility and feedback is maintained
  

Experience

• Minimum 2 years’ experience managing national accounts, ideally top 6 grocers
• Strong commercial acumen
• Retail/FMCG experience essential, ideally top 6 grocers
• Experience across our product categories, ideally in Health & Beauty or Household – Private Label
• Appetite/experience with international grocers
• Any licensing experience an advantage but not essential
• Detail-orientated with an ability to multi-task and set priorities
• Experience in Critical Path Management
• Resource Planning & Allocation
• Project Risk Assessment
• Familiar with using Microsoft Outlook, Teams, Excel, and PowerPoint
  

What we offer

• Competitive salary with annual salary reviews
• 25 days holiday per annum, increasing to 27 days after 3 years’ service and 30 days after 5 years’ service
• Extensive benefits programme including buying additional holiday, medical cash plan, access to mental health support and many other benefits
• Flexible hours and work from home available to all staff
• Great learning and development and progression opportunities · Yearly bonus structure (based on company targets)
• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Leave
• Pension Scheme Contribution
• Solent social events run by our inhouse Social Team
• Cycle to Work scheme