General Manager

Location: Houston, TX (Onsite minimum 3 days per week)

Salary: Up to $150k per annum

Job Type: Fulltime, Permanent

Company overview

En Route International operates globally as part of dnata, one of the world’s largest combined air services providers. With offices in the UK, USA, Australia and UAE, En Route supplies premium baked goods, meals and snacks to the travel industry. We focus on partnering with world-class manufacturers, customizing products and packaging to suit individual customer needs while managing a complex supply chain with the highest levels of precision.

Job purpose

This roles report to the Commercial Director and The General Manager (GM) will be responsible for the proactive development of and support to the strategic sales activities and identification of operational solutions and product-based opportunities for En Route’s products to the target clients and customers.

The GM will be responsible for the delivery of revenue and gross margins with targeted customers developing relationships and proactive strategic solution selling to airlines & caterers & customers across North America

TH GM will also be responsible for working with internal (New Product Development, Creative, Sales, Operations departments) and external caterer / client stakeholders to develop and drive new product initiatives to add value to existing and future customers. This could include including training programs, tasting sessions, product and packaging enhancements. It is expected that the roles will liaise with the other commercial roles and key account managers across the UK, EU, USA, UAE and Asia Pacific to promote sales across regions

Key responsibilities

• Accountability for all budgeted costs and involvement in contract negotiations with prospective clients and caterers.
• Grow market share, achieve and exceed sales & gross margin targets.
• Promote and participate in Demand Creation initiatives e.g. substitutions, specification management & selling process.
• Strategy and account planning for key accounts.
• Forecast, monitor and evaluate sales performance of key accounts and self.
• Analyze competitor activity and uses data to formulate proposals for changes in strategy.
• Report through the CRM system.
• Oversees the operation of the US office and associated activities.
• Work with the US and Global Commercial Team to create a shared vision and clear roadmap that drives a step change in performance to achieve growth in the region and supports global customer initiatives
• Maintains an awareness of, and exercises judgment in, such areas as market conditions, competitive activities, general economic conditions and governmental, legislative and regulatory matters.
• Identifies new market and product opportunities and feeds back market requirements to HQ as appropriate.
• Provide inspirational leadership to the US sales team and engage, motivate and drive the team in a ‘can do’ fashion to deliver the day to day growth whilst considering the options for improving strategic relationships
• Ensure that the team have every opportunity to learn, develop and progress providing appropriate training in order that people are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to perform their roles with confidence and progress in their careers
• Develop and execute strategic sales plan in conjunction with the Managing Director to achieve sales targets and expand our customer base
• To proactively develop and maintain relationships with airlines, caterers and other targets to secure new business opportunities for En Route
• Acquire deep knowledge and insights into the customer businesses and develop strategic alliances with key decision-takers and decision-influencers up to and including main board level
• Understand their business development plans and how En Route can support and enable them
• Align team goals with the sales strategy to drive innovation that meets commercial needs whilst exceeding consumer expectations
• To be involved in strategically developing solutions for prospective clients and leading sales activities to prospective clients through face to face meetings and presentations.
• To ensure all customer and prospective records and information is kept current in appropriate En Route systems maintaining up to date CRM data to manage opportunities and the pipeline in a structured way
• Establishes appropriate goals and measures for short- and long-term sales and overall growth in line with En Route vision and targets, and regularly evaluates results against these performance standards to ensure profitable growth.
• Develop and promote new business opportunities, innovations and ideas with active involvement and support of NPD and Creative Teams
• Collaborate with other key functions (Operations, NPD, Creative and Finance etc.) to ensure seamless project management and effective robust planning and delivery of the prospective and current customer promise

Candidate Profile

• An effective leader capable of taking a business wide perspective and co-ordinating resources effectively to achieve the agreed organisational goals and objectives
• Able to work in a matrix organisation and balance competing resource demands effectively
• A level of gravitas to be able to deal with C level executives on major projects is also important
• Strong business expertise – has a good perspective and regard for the other functions and works hard to ensure that sales deliver growth plans for the future.
• Extensive knowledge of demand generation, direct and indirect sales activity, strategic selling and account management techniques.
• Credible, self-assured but with a degree of humility.A real collaborator and team player – confident, resilient and with a good sense of humor, and a passion for food and passionate about what they do.
• A structured and organized sales professional who can deal with all levels within a client facing business.
• An inquisitive listener with the ability to identify with and understand client challenges and build trust and influence
• Ideally food or airline sector experience or experience gained in a fast paced environment – with similar complexity of multi stakeholder and global distribution.
• An effective relationship builder who has worked in an environment or sector undergoing substantial and rapid change and growth
• Adaptable to working in a dynamic environment with ability to multi-task with multiple external shareholders and customers.
• Ambitious, energetic, tenacious and collaborative. A strong people focussed individual capable of building high performing teams.
• Excels in judgement, decision making and the relentless execution of plans

Knowledge and skills

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Extremely well organised
• Ability to prioritise workload, multitask and work to deadlines.
• Ability to work on own initiative.
• High attention to detail and accuracy skills, ability to gather and analyse information.
• Strong business and commercial acumen
• An effective relationship builder who has worked in an environment or sector undergoing substantial and rapid change and growth.
• Strong negotiation and closing skills.
• Useful to understand continuous improvement programmes and the application of relevant tools and methods.
• Useful to have WCM / Lean Certification (TPS, Lean, Six Sigma)
• Ability to communicate across all levels of the organisation.
• Ability to coordinate multiple tasks concurrently in a fast-paced environment, demonstrating flexibility in response to changing requirements and quickly adapt to changing priorities, activities, and deadlines.
• Demonstrate high attention to detail.

Skills / Experience

• Strong IT skills: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook
• Experience using Business Central
• Commercial experience of Sales, Cost and Gross to Operating Margins
• Understanding of PowerBI
• Strong analytical skills
• Strong commercial acumen
• Solutions driven
• Motivated self-starter