Distributor Manager

About Zespri

Zespri is the world’s largest marketer of kiwifruit with over 800  people in New Zealand and throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas.

We  help people, communities and the environment thrive through the goodness of kiwifruit. We sit at the heart of an interconnected industry working with 2,800 growers in New Zealand and 1,500 growers in Italy, France, Greece, South Korea and Japan. We supply the world’s healthiest little superfruits to people in more than 50 countries. We are fruit on a mission.

Our values are at the heart of everything we do. We commit to guardianship; putting people, the community, and the environment first. We are results-driven, challenging ourselves to grow and deliver better value. We cultivate personal connections, listening and acting with empathy and humility – and treating each other better for it.

We are growing quickly, driven by our success in engaging more and more consumers and by offering the world’s best kiwifruit 12 months of the year. We have bold ambitions and aim to grow sales from approximately $3 billion in 2018 to $4.5 billion by 2025.

To achieve our goals, we’re empowering our people to achieve their goals, designing our work for wellbeing, through flexible work practices and self-leadership.

We have bold ambitions for the future and we want all of our people to live and perform at their best.

About The Role

The Distributor Manager will act as a key point of contact with the primary distributors (Trucco & Oppy). This role will be in place to gain plans' alignment and increase communication and enhance collaboration. As we continue to grow towards the 1 Billion Dollar Sales goal, we identify all opportunities (big or small) to drive sales. 

The candidate will have an attitude where there is never an end to the development cycle of an account and understand the need to be the face and voice of Zespri for the distributor sales reps consistently. As we look into 2023 a big part of our sales plans will be the increase in sales at the “Rest Of Market” accounts and with wholesalers. The Distributor Manager will be responsible for achieving those sales goals. 

The ideal candidate will be a sales representative who has worked with distributors to grow sales and execute programs both in the general market as well as with key retail partners. 

Key Responsibilities

• Weekly communication with the distributors to ensure forecasting and ordering (inbound and outbound orders)
• Manage the pre-season forecasting and work with Zespri operations to input the season volume plans
• Work with distributors to service and manage wholesaler accounts like C&S, UNFI, Four Seasons, and others
• Act as a liaison with our Key Account team and the distributor sales teams to manage sales promotions and ensure proper inventory is shipped out on time 
• Create programs to help execute general market activities with the Third Party Distributors
• Manage the trade budget with the distributors to activate wholesalers and the Rest of the Market
• Manage the bill backs. Will receive the bill back and gain the necessary approvals and submit for payment promptly
• Manage the shipper inventory at distributors and coordinate when they are needed for trade
• Monthly meetings between Distributor management and Zespri management to keep on plan and to communicate any changes and opportunities
• Ensure timely sales reporting

Key Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree (BA, Marketing preferred)
• Located in the Northeast US (NewYork/Philadelphia/Baltimore/Washington DC metro areas)
• 5+ Years’ experience managing distributor relationships with retail
• Experience working in cross-functional teams 
• Comfortable presenting in a public forum
• Experienced working directly with customers to develop programs to sell in product
• Experience communicating via written and verbal communication as employees are located across the country
• Analytical mindset, data-driven approach be familiar with IRI
• Fluent in English
• Extensive experience with Microsoft suite of software (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook)
• Self-starter, able to operate autonomously 

What's in it for you

• The base salary for this position is between 88k- 110k plus a performance-based short-term incentive scheme (for employees who meet the eligibility criteria). Please note that individual total compensation will vary based on factors such as qualifications, skill level, competencies, performance and work location.
• FlexWELL flexible work ethos
• Additional paid annual leave day per year (Zespri Day).
• Additional paid volunteer day to volunteer within your community (Volunteer Time).
• Global Life and Permanent Disability Insurance.
• Group Medical Insurance benefits.

Agencies

Zespri will not accept applications or contact from any temporary staffing agency, placement service or professional recruiter for this vacancy (“Agency”).

Where Zespri requires the support of an agency to fulfil a vacancy, we will proactively seek this support from our network of Agencies.  We respectfully ask that you do not contact Zespri or any of its affiliates/employees regarding vacancies, and reserve the right not to reply.

Zespri will not be responsible for, and will not pay, any fees, commissions or other payments related to such unsolicited resumes.