Growth Director: Customer

Company: RCL Foods

Functions: Customer

Job Type Classification: Permanent

Location - Town / City: Westville

Job Description: RCL FOODS is a deeply rooted South African food manufacturer that produces some of the country’s most-loved brands, including Yum Yum peanut butter, Nola mayonnaise, Ouma rusks, and Selati sugar, just to name a few. At the heart of our culture and strategy is our Purpose – WE GROW WHAT MATTERS – which reflects our belief in collectively doing that little more to create a positive impact that truly matters. Visit our website: www.rclfoods.com We are driven by our purpose to Grow What Matters . As one of South Africa's leading food companies, we are passionate about building strong brands, creating meaningful customer partnerships, and delivering sustainable growth across our business. We are looking for an exceptional Growth Director: Customer to join our Growth Leadership Team. This pivotal leadership role is responsible for driving sales growth, profitability, and market share through strategic customer partnerships, pricing excellence, and outstanding commercial execution. You will lead a high-performing sales team, shape and execute our customer growth strategy, and translate ambitious business goals into sustainable results that strengthen RCL FOODS' competitive advantage and deliver winning outcomes for both our customers and business.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) Degree in Business Management, Marketing, Economics, or a related field.
• 10-15 years of experience within FMCG, retail, commercial, sales, or customer leadership environments.
• Proven experience managing large customer portfolios and developing strategic customer relationships.
• A minimum of 5 years' experience in a senior leadership or executive-level commercial role.
• Knowledge & Skills
• Proven success in developing and executing commercial and sales strategies.
• Strong financial and commercial acumen with deep understanding of profitability drivers.
• Advanced negotiation and stakeholder management capability.
• Strong understanding of pricing strategy, category management, and customer growth principles.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams in a complex FMCG environment.
• Strong analytical, strategic thinking, and decision-making capability.
• Knowledge of market trends, consumer behaviour, retail dynamics, and competitive

Duties & Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership

• Lead the development of short, medium, and long-term strategies, customer, and sales plans that drive sustainable growth and market leadership.
• Identify emerging customer, channel, and market opportunities to accelerate business growth.
• Shape and influence commercial strategies across brands, channels, categories, and customers.

Commercial Performance

• Deliver sales, profitability, market share, and volume growth targets.
• Drive Gross-to-Net excellence and optimise commercial investments to maximise returns.
• Lead pricing strategy execution across portfolios to improve competitiveness & profitability.
• Monitor commercial performance and implement corrective actions to achieve stretch targets.

Customer Excellence

• Build strategic partnerships with key customers and stakeholders.
• Lead negotiations and joint business planning initiatives that create shared value.
• Leverage customer and shopper insights to strengthen RCL FOODS' competitive position.

Sales & Execution Excellence

• Drive Best-in-Class in-store execution to ensure RCL FOODS consistently wins at shelf.
• Embed performance management disciplines that drive sales productivity and commercial effectiveness.
• Lead the implementation of innovative sales capabilities and customer engagement solutions.

Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead, coach, inspire, and develop a high-performing customer leadership team.
• Maintain a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Build organisational capability to meet future customer and commercial challenges.

If you are a commercially astute, customer-focused leader with a passion for growth, innovation, and people leadership, we'd love to hear from you.