Commercial Director France & Belgium

As a key strategic contributor towards the Consumer Goods EMEA Business Unit, the Private Label Division’s aspiration is to be THE Winning Experts in Private Label for Consumer Tissue in Europe. To support our journey to achieve this aspiration our PLD Commercial Team are looking for a Commercial Director France & Belgium to start as soon as possible.

About the role

As a Commercial Director France & Belgium within Private Label Division, you will be responsible for sales results and for developing, directing and controlling all related commercial activities across both French & Belgian markets. You ensure that agreed sales, growth and profitability targets are achieved. You manage this through empowering and developing your own team (Key Account, Trade Marketing, Product and Quality Management, Customer Service and Demand Planning) as well as building strong and close relations with key customers. A close cooperation with other functions such as Controlling, Product Development and Manufacturing is critical to ensure customer needs are met and agreed sales growth and profitability targets are achieved.

This position contributes to the overall European business development and the Commercial Director is member of the European Commercial management team and will report to the Head of Commercial Europe, Private Label Division.

What you will do

• Lead, direct and develop the local commercial organization (Key Account, Trade Marketing, Product and Quality Management, Customer Service and Demand Planning)

• Define country commercial strategy and secure implementation of commercial plans for area of responsibility. Set direction and targets, follow-up performance, decide on corrective actions as needed and roll out best practices

• Build & maintain strong relationship with customers including optimal communication and penetration plan to ensure sustainable customer satisfaction

• Lead together with KA team negotiations of contracts, conditions and product offer with key customers incl. preparation and driving of business plans

• Ensure consistent local pricing strategy to drive sustainable profitability and lead any pricing initiatives needed in case of cost development

• Manage and execute sales & product/innovation approach, drive customer and volume mix to optimize profitability and fulfil overall relevant Division goals

• Oversee sales forecast to meet annual budget and financial forecast requirements as well as taking responsibility for country market P&L.

• Provide leadership and coordination for all activities linked to the customer. Build and maintain strong relationship and collaboration within sales network and related functional teams especially Product Development and Manufacturing, and secure proper communication and coordination

• As member of the European Commercial Management Team, you take an active part in commercial strategy work to drive BU overall business development and success

Who You Are

• Master’s degree in Business Administration or equivalent

• 10-15 years industry/FMCG experience in a similar sales role leading team with P&L responsibility, with proven experience in successful management of major key accounts within a leading FMCG company in France

• Experience in or very good knowledge of the Retail Brand business would be an advantage

• Effective proven negotiation skills under difficult conditions

• Good understanding of the total value chain with focus on Product Development and Manufacturing and being able to take multiple stakeholder perspective

• Excellent leadership skills, providing a positive compelling vision and strategies that motivates other and sustain a competitive advantage

• Strong people management experience, develop and maintain the work environment that delivers superior performance by providing direction, removing obstacles and developing people and successful teams

• Build and maintain superior working relationships across the organization to enable delivery of superior performance

• Drive change and engagement by anticipating trends in a moving environment

• Result & action oriented and able to build and maintain customer relations

• Outstanding communication skills being able to adapt approach to multiple internal & external stakeholders

• Able to easily gain trust and confidence of others acting with high integrity

• Ability to achieve results in a matrix and in international environment

• Excellent English and French communication levels

Additional Information

Hybrid work with frequent travels required for both internal and customer meetings.

This position is located in Saint-Ouen, Paris-France.

Only applications in English will be considered.

Our purpose, Breaking Barriers to Well-Being, provides meaning to everything we do. Join us to improve well-being for people and drive positive change for society and the environment. At Essity, you'll feel valued, empowered to grow, and challenged to achieve business results in a collaborative and open atmosphere. Innovate for Good  |  Excel Together |  Be You with Us

This is us:

Within the Consumer Tissue Private Label Division, we believe in the spirit of entrepreneurship, cross functional collaboration, and value chain thinking. We act with agility and have the courage to be bold. CTPLD enjoys the freedom to operate independently as needed, while also benefiting from synergies with the rest of the business. Our people are the cornerstone of our success, driving us to be the winning experts in Private Label for Consumer Tissue in Europe.