Senior Vice President, Away From Home Division

Summary: The SVP - Away from Home is the leader for the AFH business unit and has responsibility for the management, strategic direction, and overall P&L for the division. Efforts are primarily focused on continuing the division’s revenue, volume, profitability, and ROIC growth of tea, coffee, lemonade, and allied products sold through ongoing strategic and new opportunity growth channels, including but not limited to wholesale distribution, convenience stores, QSR/LSR/FSR restaurants, healthcare, hospitality, and industrial. This individual is a core part of the company’s leadership team and positively impacts the business through direct management of a sales force, customer service division, and administrative support while collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders across the organization (manufacturing, quality, sourcing, marketing, operations, logistics) to further enhance the industry-leading performance of the firm. This position can be located at our corporate office near Birmingham, AL or can be remote with regular corporate office visits, offering the flexibility to work from your home office while collaborating with a distributed team.

Responsibilities:

Finance

• Owner of AFH P&L. Full accountability for AFH division revenue, gross profit, and operating profit.
• Build and execute annual sales & operations targets and long-term strategic plans.
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners (Finance, Procurement) to maintain industry-competitive pricing strategy
• Monitor division and channel performance and implement actions to meet and exceed annual targets
• Ensure high levels of customer service, product quality, team responsiveness, and compliance at profitable rates

Strategy

• Maintain current successful go-to-market while identifying opportunity areas to diversify and gain share
• Partner with Marketing to drive local and national trade spend and positively impact the company’s AFH brands
• Lead and scale sales efforts across ongoing strategic and new opportunity growth channels
• Partner with Executive Vice President on special projects to drive long-term company value outside of standard daily responsibilities
• Leverage customer insights and in-market feedback to identify improvement opportunity areas in our GTM strategy
• Drive cost-to-serve improvements and operational efficiencies across the division

Product

• Lead product category strategy, collaborate on product portfolio, and advise on product manufacturing across branded and private label offerings
• Assist in product development and innovation pipeline prioritization based on consumer insights with cross-functional partners (R&D, Marketing)

People Leadership – Internal & External Stakeholders

• Provide recommendations for capital investment that balance long-term growth opportunities and margin
• Maintain strong customer relationships with key accounts at the cooperative/GPO, distributor, and operator levels
• Collaborate with business ops stakeholders (Supply Chain, Procurement, Manufacturing, Demand Planning) to positively impact net income
• Maintain a culture of accountability, honesty, and continuous improvement within the division and influence the same culture throughout the organization
• Lead future organizational design, talent development, and succession planning while actively mentoring and leading a high-performing sales team

Behavioral Competencies

• Superior leadership abilities and communication skills
• Strong business acumen including extensive P&L management experience including the ability, drive, and desire to deliver outstanding results from both a revenue and profitability perspective
• Sincere and businesslike manner that inspires confidence, trust, and respect
• Has previous experience growing a business with proven growth results
• Dedicated mentor who possesses a dynamic and motivational style
• Hands-on and attentive to details
• Stays abreast of developments in the food and beverage industry
• Analytical
• Strong teamwork skills including ability to serve on executive team and focus on the good of the entire organization.

Personal Characteristics

• Visionary and passionate leader; high energy; inspires respect and trust; generates enthusiasm
• Highly competitive
• Problem solver
• Possesses a positive, can-do attitude
• Strong influencing and negotiation skills
• Flexibility and agility to work well with a variety of individual styles
• Comfortable and confident operating at an executive level; courage of conviction; ego in check
• Demonstrates ability to be accountable for him/herself and others; is self-aware and works to address areas of development
• The highest personal and professional integrity; ethical and honest, a role model who leads by example

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in business or related field required; MBA preferred
• Executive experience commanding P&L for an organization of relevant size, scope, and complexity including 15 plus years of progressively senior customer management roles in the food service industry. Proven track record having profitably grown a business, having developed and implemented the appropriate policies and processes necessary to drive and manage a business, and having infused his/her teams with a clear and focused drive for measurable performance.
• Must possess a strong detail orientation with exceptional analytical skills
• It is important that this executive has experience and positive, senior-level relationships with key distributors as well as internal sales leadership exposure such as sales planning and marketing.
• Proven leadership capabilities and a winning personality including above average people skills with a demonstrated ability to cultivate and lead high performing and dynamic sales teams in a highly competitive environment.

This is an executive level position with the company, and competitive salary, performance bonus, health insurance, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, and 401k are available.