About Us:
Hozelock Exel Industries is a leading international manufacturer of gardening, watering, spraying and crop-care solutions, combining strong heritage brands with a focus on innovation, quality and sustainability. Part of the Exel Industries Group, we operate across the UK, Ireland and Europe, supplying major retail partners with category-leading products and trusted brands. Our success is built on strong customer relationships, commercial excellence and a collaborative, forward-thinking culture.
Job Purpose:
The National Account Manager – UK & Ireland (Commercial Spraying) will be responsible for managing and developing a portfolio of key national wholesale accounts, delivering agreed sales, margin, and growth targets. The role will lead commercial negotiations, drive category and brand performance, and coordinate sales, marketing, and customer service activity to ensure the business is positioned as a category-leading supplier with its customers.
European travel will be required in this role approx. every 6-8 weeks.
Duties & Responsibilities:
* To ensure that sales and profit from the account portfolio are delivered in line with company & customer expectations.
* Coordination of customer service and trade marketing activities at a national level
* To negotiate Hozelock margins & promotional costs.
* To develop exceptional relationships at all levels within accounts to ensure that Hozelock are regarded as the number one, category-leading supplier
* To actively shape and coordinate the UK & Ireland annual marketing response for your brands with the relevant internal teams
* To understand the business objectives & strategies of your customers to ensure the development of relevant categories.
* To drive category management & category development initiatives within accounts to ensure overall growth & margin objectives are achieved.
* To negotiate NPD listings and promotional activity on an on-going basis.
* To ensure exceptional customer service is achieved at all times by communicating effectively with both internal & external customers (both product technical and commercial problem solving may be required).
* To liaise with all key internal colleagues & highlight recurring quality issues to the relevant department
* To be responsible for accurate sales forecasts for all listed products – both standard and promotional lines.
* Produce monthly performance summary reports on portfolio for presentation both internally and to customers.
* To actively review and assess all promotional activity to ensure relevance and effectiveness and make recommendations on future activity.
What are we looking for?
* Must have at least 3 years’ experience of managing national retail accounts – not necessarily within the gardening sector
* Ideally PA1/ PA6 sprayer qualified or willing to undertake spray qualification
* Robust work experience, can demonstrate a professional approach both verbally & written, and have a proven track record of successful account management and development.
* Marketing & Commercial awareness
* Must be able to demonstrate that they can effectively influence both internal & external contacts to work with them in order to achieve results
* Must be able to clearly demonstrate a successful track record in working with customers to achieve targets and deliver growth.
* Must have a good understanding of the classical category management principles and be able to demonstrate how they have used them effectively in previous roles