Area Sales Manager - Independent Grocery

About Us

GWF is one of the largest food manufacturers in Australia and New Zealand, employing around 6,000 people across 40 sites. GWF’s product range is diverse and includes leading brands of breads, baked goods, smallgoods, flour, milled products, and animal feed. GWF’s business units include Tip Top, DON, Yumi’s, MAURI, and Jasol.

DON’s heritage goes back to the late 1800s. Since the beginning, we have been passionate about crafting great-tasting meat products that Australians love. We produce ham, bacon, salami, smallgoods, and fresh pork.

We take great pride in our skills, techniques, and brands, which have evolved over more than a century. We’ve grown from a small family business to become one of Australia’s largest food manufacturers, now part of the GWF group.

DON is also a leading Australian employer with offices and facilities in metropolitan and regional locations across the country. We take pride in being a responsible employer and a great place to work. We offer a safe and supportive environment where everyone can achieve their full potential.

About the Role

As Area Sales Manager, you’ll manage an established patch across Melbourne’s northern suburbs and northern regional Victoria, partnering with independent grocery customers to grow DON’s presence in-store. This is an autonomous, field-based role with limited office time, so most of your week will be spent on the road building customer relationships, identifying growth opportunities and supporting strong execution.

The role is commercially focused and hands-on, bringing together promotional planning, NPD, category growth, store-level negotiation and in-store activity. You’ll need to plan ahead, manage a 12-week cycle, prioritise your workload and stay close to what is happening in trade so you can turn customer conversations into practical outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Achieve agreed volume and execution targets across your territory.
• Plan and manage 12-week cycles across promotions, NPD, category growth and customer priorities.
• Identify and convert in-store growth opportunities through range, space, upselling and promotional execution.
• Negotiate at store level to support agreed state targets and customer outcomes.
• Maintain trade standards including core range, layouts, displays, stock rotation, ticketing and point of sale and instore merchandising.
• Support ad hoc demos and tastings where required.
• Manage daily store-to-store travel, regional overnights and occasional interstate travel for team events, group activities or training.
• Report activity, field execution outcomes and market intelligence accurately and on time.
• Contribute to a safe working environment by following health and safety requirements and supporting safety initiatives.

Why Join Us

Our Purpose is to craft food that brings out ‘the good’.

When you work at DON, not only will you be part of a community crafting iconic products that people love, you will also enjoy a safe and supportive environment where you can be your authentic self, advance in your career if you choose to, be recognised and rewarded for your contributions, and make a positive difference in the community.

We also work hard to ensure the programs and benefits we offer are competitive and reflect the needs and preferences of our people. They include (among others):

• Flexible work arrangements
• Community partnerships and initiatives, including 2 volunteer days per year
• Options to purchase additional leave
• Discounted products
• Training and development programs
• Global career opportunities
• Various recognition programs and rewards, including an end-of-year celebration
• Health and wellness initiatives
• Study Assistance

About You

• Experience in a similar FMCG, food or grocery field sales role is highly regarded.
• Exposure to independent grocery groups such as IGA, FoodWorks or Metcash is preferred.
• A track record of delivering tangible sales growth or in-store execution outcomes.
• Strong relationship-building, negotiation and objection-handling skills.
• Commercial planning capability across promotional activity, NPD, line growth and forward workload priorities.
• Confidence working autonomously, spending most of your time on the road and managing regular travel.
• A practical, hands-on approach, including willingness to support merchandising, demos and tastings when needed.
• Able to work in collaborative environment with strong interpersonal skills

At DON and George Weston Foods, we are an equal opportunity employer. We embrace inclusion and diversity and celebrate what makes us unique. We are committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity and the provision of a safe and healthy work environment.

So we can get to know you in the best possible way, we're happy to adjust our recruitment process to support your accessibility needs. Please let us know your needs in providing a positive, barrier-free recruitment process via email to •••@gwf.com.au

Applicants for this position may be required to undertake pre-employment screening tests including a pre-employment medical, drug and alcohol test and a security / background check which may also include a criminal record check. Proof of eligibility to work is required for all successful applicants.

GWF has a duty of care and a legal responsibility to promote, monitor and maintain a safe working environment for the protection of all of our people in our workplaces. As per our GWF Workplace COVID-19 Safety and Vaccination Policy we strongly encourage all new employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 unless exempt, and note that some roles are subject to customer mandates in relation to COVID-19 vaccination.

Please note only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

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