General Manager - Commercial

• Lead and develop a talented Sales & Marketing team
• Drive category growth, customer relationships & product innovation
• Sit on an Executive Leadership team to impact business strategy

We're proud to be partnering yet again with Baxer's Food Group, a globally-headquartered, family-owned FMCG business - which has established a significant presence in the Australian food industry, offering a diverse range of high-quality products tailored for global food service and retail sectors. Baxter's portfolio includes a range of sauces, condements and baking brands reflecting its commitment to excellence and innovation.

With a mission to deliver exceptional food experiences and uphold the highest standards of quality and innovation, Baxters Food Group places a strong emphasis on fostering a positive company culture. Its values of integrity, teamwork, and continuous improvement are reflected in recent initiatives aimed at enhancing employee engagement and aligning organisational goals with employee satisfaction, underscoring its dedication to sustainable growth and success. Through a period of change, and growth - the business is now seeking a highly engaging General Manager - Commercial. 

THE ROLE

The General Manager - Commercial role plays a pivotal part in Baxters's Food Group ambitious expansion plans, encompassing Sales & Category, NPD and Marketing responsibilities. The role goes beyond a typical executive position; it's a call to action. The right person, with a deep understanding of retail & foodservice sales and customer relationships, NPD, marketing will lead the company's commercial hub to consolidate its position as a market leader.

The General Manager - Commercial will have a real vision to set out the growth agenda and steer the direction of the long-term sales & category, product development and brand strategy for the business as they continue to scale up capabilities.

To initiate change, the General Manager - Commercial will explore new categories, provide direction for product concepts, test within the consumer market, run focus groups, identify demographics, and look at segmentation to inform the wider Baxters Food business strategy. They will drive commercial outcomes, grounded in solid research and insights. There will be a real focus here on educating and influencing the wider business to better plan the future, to bring teams together and to coach and upskill the existing team members to become subject matter experts. This will require collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders and a high level of initiative.

Culturally, the General Manager - Commercial will drive and execute a shared vision, strategy, and goal across the sales, category and marketing functions breaking down any silo mentality and creating synergy and a positive and progressive culture across their direct and broader teams. This will play a vital role in retaining and attracting staff in the future.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Skills, Behaviours & Experience: 

• Previous senior-level multi-functional sales, category & marketing experience gained from a progressive retail FMCG organisations that presents as a commercially savvy FMCG leader who has proven experience in significantly growing market share and entering new categories on market.  
• Customer-centric, customer first.
• An established skillset across insights, innovation and strategy is essential; as is the ability to drive propositions and manage a team.
• A self-driven, motivated, and self-structured person, the General Manager - Commercial Manager will build out the role from the ground up to explore new category prospects to support the businesses' long-term vision.
• They will be a real problem solver; proactively looking for improvement and positive change with a “can do” mentality and ‘out of the box’ thinking
• Business Partner: strong ability to build business partnerships and influence and participate in senior management decisions. Analytical skills focused on business strategy understanding, business case development, financial statement cause and effect understanding, problem-solving, and continuous process improvement.
• Leadership and Communication Skills: Demonstrated executive presence that enhances relationships with senior management and stakeholders. Positive influencing skills, interacting with professionals in various functional areas to resolve organisational issues. Outstanding written and verbal communication skills
• Entrepreneurial Spirit: Possesses a sense of ownership and entrepreneurial spirit. Comfortable in a small, family-owned, dynamic and evolving organisation. Innovative in developing organisational processes and procedures.

• As a successful General Manager - Commercial, you'll need to be open-minded to accept cultural differences and be curious to understand the history of the business, to be able to convince peers, team members, and the community about their plans/ideas with a collaborative and people-first approach. They must be humble about their experience and not be ego-driven!
• You must be a team player and lead by example, ensuring that the team's goals are above personal objectives.
• The ideal candidate must display a profile that can gain trust, create buy-in, and inanities a progressive and forward-thinking work environment.