Customer Business Manager

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At Lactalis in the USA, we're committed to providing meaningful opportunities for our people to learn, grow, and thrive-whether you're just starting your journey with us or looking to take the next step in your career. From day one, we offer the tools and support to help you succeed.

As the world leader in dairy, Lactalis is a family-owned company with over 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals across the globe. Each day, we're proud to produce award-winning dairy products that bring people together.

In the US, we proudly offer an unrivaled house of beloved brands, including Galbani Italian cheeses and ricotta, President specialty cheeses and butters, Kraft natural and grated cheeses, Breakstone's cottage cheese, Cracker Barrel, Black Diamond cheddar, and Parmalat milk. Our yogurt portfolio includes siggi's, Stonyfield Organic, Brown Cow, Oui, Yoplait, Go-Gurt, :ratio, Green Mountain Creamery, and Mountain High, along with a growing family of ethnic favorites like Karoun, Gopi, and Arz.

At Lactalis, we live by our core values-Ambition, Engagement, and Simplicity. We foster a workplace where innovation thrives, diverse perspectives are celebrated, and everyone's unique background and ideas are valued.

Even if you don't meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply. We want to hear about your PASSION, your STORY, and how your EXPERTISE can help us shape the future of dairy.

From your PASSION to ours

Lactalis Midwest Yogurt, part of the Lactalis family of companies, is currently hiring a Customer Business Manager.

The Lactalis Yogurt Customer Business Manager is responsible for the development and execution of customer-specific plans, inclusive of all Lactalis USA yogurt brands, that maximize growth, align with strategic priorities, and deliver both top-line and bottom-line targets. This role is essential to driving the Lactalis Yogurt strategy by establishing and maintaining strong business relationships through our customer and broker networks.

From your EXPERTISE to ours

Key responsibilities for this position include:

• Develop and maintain effective multiple customer relationships, utilizing customer specific broker teams to maximize support.
• Achieve targeted sales and financial budgets.
• Understand customer needs and link them to Lactalis product and service strategies to develop mutually beneficial business plans.
• Review, evaluate, report results, and request support needed against specific sales objectives on a continuous basis.
• Work closely with sales team, sales planning, and others within the organization to develop and execute strategic initiatives within area of responsibility (promotional plans, distribution initiatives, optimized assortment and new item launch execution).
• Responsible for customer sales and promotional planning.
• Work closely with Sales team and Sales Planner in the ongoing management and evaluation of trade spending efficiency.
• Utilize and apply learnings from external sales data resources effectively (IRI, etc.).
• Utilize management tools to monitor, direct, and evaluate our broker execution.
• Manage and actively participate in regional trade shows to maximize sales opportunities and event related investments.
• Leverage our strength as a category leader in the marketplace.
• Responsible for supporting a variety of accounts that may include: AWG, other wholesale and Military.
• Take personal accountability and ownership for results, deep understanding of customers, and awareness of competitive landscape.
• Assist team with developing goals for customers and brokers.
• Gain new product acceptance and merchandising levels in alignment with selling goals.
• Management and tracking of broker teams responsible for customers.
• Development and maintenance of tools that provide focus and motivation for all assigned HQ broker teams.
• Facilitation of supply chain discussions.
• Retrieve and analyze syndicated and customer specific customer and consumer data to understand category / industry trends.
• Understand and leverage category management principles to influence distribution and share of shelf.

From your STORY to ours

Qualified applicants will contribute the following:

• Bachelor's Degree in business or related field preferred.
• 5+ years of sales and sales management experience within the food industry. Experience with wholesalers and supermarket customers is strongly preferred.
• Experience in broker/distributor management is also preferred.
• Category management and/or Omnichannel marketing experience a plus.
• Industry and channel knowledge are preferred.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint is required.
• Strong analytics, negotiation and personal selling skills required.
• Ability to operate effectively and contribute within a team environment.
• Ability to prioritize and meet deadlines within specified time constraints.
• Ability to adapt in a changing work environment.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, and the willingness to work within an established management group are required.
• A high degree of self-initiative and the potential for continued growth in management are preferred.
• Experience in an entrepreneurial smaller company will be considered an asset.
• Requires the ability to flex schedule as needed to meet travel & business demands.
• Ability to travel 25-40% dependent on assigned customer account.

At Lactalis, we offer a comprehensive Total Rewards Program with a variety of affordable benefits and coverage options. We support insurance costs significantly, contribute generously to retirement plans, and offer Paid Time Off from day one. We are committed to your professional growth, providing training and development opportunities, including Education Reimbursement. Join us and grow your career.

Lactalis is an equal employment opportunity employer. We will not discriminate against applicants with regard to any legally-recognized basis including, but not limited to: veteran status, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities. Further, any division of the Company that is an Affirmative Action Employer will comply with all related legal obligations.