National Account Manager

Salary up to £60,000 + car allowance + bonus & benefits

Home-based | Yorkshire head office approximately once a week

An established UK bakery manufacturer is looking to appoint an experienced Food service National Account Manager to help drive its continued growth across the UK food service market.

Part of one of the country’s largest and most successful food groups, the business offers the stability, resources and career opportunities of a major organisation while retaining a focused and collaborative commercial environment.

The company manufactures an extensive range of frozen bakery products, including muffins, sweet pies, garlic breads, baguettes and other savoury bakery lines. It has an established private-label customer base across food service, wholesale, contract catering and retail.

This is an especially exciting time to join. The business has recently introduced its own brand to the UK market and is investing several million pounds in its Yorkshire manufacturing operation to support future innovation, capacity and growth.

The opportunity

You will take commercial responsibility for developing the company’s presence across the UK food service channel, with a particular focus on managing and growing relationships with major national wholesalers, including Brakes and Bidfood.

Alongside developing existing accounts, you will identify new listings and distribution opportunities, build relationships with food service end users and support the continued expansion of the company’s newly launched branded range.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Managing and developing strategic relationships with national food service wholesalers
• Creating and delivering customer account plans
• Growing sales, distribution and profitability across existing accounts
• Identifying and securing new product listings
• Working with customers to increase product awareness and engagement
• Developing relationships with food service end users to create demand through the wholesale channel
• Leading pricing discussions, commercial negotiations and promotional activity
• Managing forecasts, budgets and account profitability
• Working closely with NPD, marketing, operations and supply chain
• Supporting the growth of both private-label products and the company’s developing branded proposition

About you

You will have a proven background in food service national account management, ideally including direct responsibility for Brakes and/or Bidfood.

Experience developing business with food service end users—including restaurant groups, pub groups, coffee shops, hotels and contract caterers, would also be highly valuable.

Bakery experience would be beneficial but is not essential. The company is open to candidates from different food categories, provided you have relevant experience selling through the UK food service channel.

You will ideally bring:

• National account management experience within the UK food industry
• Strong knowledge of food service wholesale
• Experience managing Brakes and/or Bidfood
• A track record of delivering profitable account growth
• Experience securing new listings and increasing product distribution
• Strong commercial, negotiation and relationship-building skills
• The ability to work autonomously within a home-based position
• A collaborative approach to working with internal teams

The package

• Basic salary up to £60,000
• Performance-related bonus
• Pension
• Home-based contract
• Yorkshire head office attendance approximately once a week
• Excellent long-term opportunities within a major UK food group