🟣Commercial Controller: Retail / Grocery
🟣Location: North- Office Focused
🟣Remuneration: £85,000 - £105,000 + Benefits
The Business
Our client is one of the largest private-label food manufacturers in the UK, partnering with a broad portfolio of UK grocery retailers across mainstream channels. With deep commercial capability in chilled categories and an ambitious innovation pipeline, they are investing heavily in future growth through customer partnerships, operational scale, and long-term category leadership.
Their three-year strategic ambition is bold, to lead the industry in delivering unbeatable value, operational excellence, and leading NPD. Alongside their existing strengths, they are now elevating their focus on driving further growth across the whole product portfolio.
Significant group investment and a clear long-range plan are already in place. This role has been created to help lead the charge in one of the most strategically important growth areas in UK retail.
The Role
As Commercial Controller- Retail, you will take full ownership of a high-growth Customer, within a multi-category business unit. This includes a broad customer base spanning several core product areas. You will shape the end-to-end Customer commercial strategy, lead a high-performing customer team, and deliver both short-term commercial wins and long-term structural growth. This is a customer-facing and internally transformative role.
You will work cross-functionally with peers across supply chain, category, operations, and innovation, embedding new ways of working, sharpening execution, and positioning the business as a partner of choice.
This role offers exceptional visibility across the organisation, as well as direct influence with a senior customer who play a central role in shaping modern retail and shopper behaviour.
Key Responsibilities
* Own and lead the total commercial agenda for one of their biggest Customers
* Develop and execute short, mid, and long-term commercial strategies that drive margin, share, and growth
* Build and inspire a first-class commercial team
* Drive change by embedding agile processes, data-led thinking, and faster, sharper execution
* Work cross-functionally to shape and deliver operational excellence across chilled categories
* Create customer-specific plans that balance short-term trading performance with long-range innovation
* Represent the Customer at board level, influencing investment decisions and shaping the overall strategic direction of the group
* Lead a mix of traded, value-driven products alongside higher-margin innovation and development ranges
* Act as the voice of the customer internally, ensuring exceptional service, responsiveness, and category alignment
Why Apply
✔️ Lead a strategically critical Customer in one of the fastest-growing sectors in UK retail
✔️ Work directly with the executive board to shape future investment, innovation, and commercial direction
✔️ Join a well-resourced, future-focused group with a clear vision for long-term category leadership
✔️ Be part of a lean, agile, and high-performance culture where pace, creativity, and accountability are rewarded
✔️ Build a platform for further executive progression.
Candidate Profile
We are seeking a senior commercial leader with a track record of delivering results in UK grocery, ideally across chilled, short shelf-life, or own-label categories. Experience in retail Grocery or Discounters is preferrable.
• Proven experience leading large retail accounts or other high-volume customers- Discounters
• Commercially astute with strong P&L ownership, pricing, and customer strategy expertise
• Track record of growing customer portfolios, driving margin, and managing complex product mixes
• Inspirational team leader who builds trust, develops capability, and drives high performance
• Comfortable leading change in dynamic environments and embedding agile ways of working
• Exceptional internal stakeholder management skills, especially within matrix structures
• Ready to operate at pace with high visibility and real accountability