United Arab Emirates
- Responsible for maintaining, managing and developing all strategic business partnerships in Key Accounts covering the HORECA industry, across the UAE. - Managing a Sales Team of 8 people, their performance, development and responsibilities to ensure team & company targets are met as well as personal & professional goals are achieved. - Meeting customers on a daily basis to discuss market dynamics, stock & price updates, product & portfolio developments and critically to discuss & close contracts. - Ensuring growth of existing customers in both volume & value through business development meetings targeting increased items per customer, growth of value-added portfolio and securing baseload business. - Supporting customer growth through “business partnership approach” offering over and above support through initiatives such as marketing collaborations, menu development & creative sales techniques to achieve mutual success. - Developing new business through market research, customer visits to discuss products & business objectives, price & product offerings and closing new contracts. - Dealing with multiple internal stakeholders within the company (Business Development, Finance, Logistics, Quality, Credit) to ensure smooth flow of both customer business (stock, pricing, quality, supply) and internal business (sales, profitability, cash flow, distribution). - Presenting weekly & monthly sales & project updates to the wider company to show and discuss target progress, challenges, plans, expectations & projects.
- Managing the Burger, Franks, Fries and Vegetable categories for Sadia, the leading frozen poultry brand in the UAE. Responsible for customer & shopper marketing agenda, market share growth (volume & value) and profitability. - Full ownership of multiple campaigns executed across the whole UAE market, including e-commerce. Managing all aspects from budget allocation to implementation in store / online. Involving coordination with various teams and stakeholders. Key achievement being the smooth management of the Ramadan 2022 campaign. - Analyzing multiple data sources (Nielsen, EPOS, IMS) to understand market & category trends to develop strategic action plans to improve category performance. - Elevating in-store presence and consumer engagement through POSM, promotion communication, various activations, and management of our in-house promoter team during campaigns. - Management of the e-commerce business for strategic and campaign focused purposes. Developing visibility & advertising solutions with key partners, focusing on product awareness & consumer engagement. - Supervision of the retail promotion calendars. Working closely with the seals teams to plan & direct stocks in line with strategic goals, following up with the logistic team to ensure availability. - Driving growth of the category portfolio through coordination with the regional brand team to optimize available SKUs and introduce new products to the market. Then managing full market product launches aiming to hit both short and long-term targets.
- Leading the Trade Marketing agenda for the Traditional Trade and Food Service channels. The role involved coordinating with both teams to deliver & execute marketing strategies whilst ensuring strong volume & value product performance across both channels. - Key achievements include introducing new MSL (Must Stock List) concept for Traditional Trade, growing the distribution & performance of FPP products in Restaurants & Cafeterias through use of the ‘Sadia Kids Meal Kits’ and launching the ‘Sadia Quickit,’ a DIY meal kit which was the brand’s first step into the catering market segment.
Primary responsibilities include: - Monitoring and assessing outlet execution in the on-trade. Translating data analytics into insight & direction to leverage opportunities to grow brands. Involving development of strategic plans to increase distribution and improve brand presence and performance through targeting key areas – availability, pricing, visibility, quality & promotions / activations - Coordinating the implementation, execution & evaluation of on-trade activations, including managing the 3rd party Mystery Shopper agency. Using data and knowledge of the on-trade to offer insight and propose improvements in brand planning sessions and monthly sales meetings. - Fully managing Sirocco’s CRM system, understanding its functionalities and developing uses to enhance company performance. Utilizing data output to track sales execution in the on-trade as well as to monitor and feed back brand performance to Brand Managers. - Playing a key role in the yearly Trade Census data collection & analysis. Managing all areas of the data collection process, including managing an intern assisting in data entry. Using advanced excel skills to quickly format and analyse data output into clear useable information. Then analyzing the data and producing insight used in strategic planning & contract negotiations. Key Achievement: I identified the opportunity to leverage company time in trade to generate measurable & targetable data through the introduction of the ‘Sirocco Mystery Shopper App.’ Proposed the concept, then used knowledge of key execution areas in the on-trade, as well as promotional knowledge and experience handling the 3rd party Mystery Shopper agency to develop the functionalities. The app is key tool used within the Sirocco Marketing team, unifying the team behind the same goal and producing measurable & targetable data output as well as reducing the cost per shop charged by the current Mystery Shopping agency used.
I was selected to take part in a 3 month Graduate sales programme at Heineken (which was extended by a month after a final assessment). I worked as a Regional Sales Executive handling various accounts across Kent & Sussex. I received training in sales, negotiations and communication. The role also greatly developed my organisational skills as well as my confidence and ability to handle different situations.
As an intern, I spent time working as a communications and public relations officer, handling daily press releases and communications with existing and prospective association members as well as members of parliament. I worked on political campaigns such as that to cut beer duty, and social campaigns such as the Pub Chef of the Year competition.
During my year out and time out of university I have spent time working as a farm hand helping tend the grounds, work the harvest and set up for events such as weddings.