National Key Account Manager

At **I&J**, part of **AVI**, we combine close to 115 years of excellence with a forward-thinking approach to the fishing industry. As a leader in premium seafood, including Cape Hake and farmed Cape Abalone, we are committed to sustainability, innovation, and empowering local communities. Our latest innovation, Air-Fri’kn Amazing, brings bold flavours and crispy perfection to your air fryer, showcasing our passion for quality and customer-centric excellence.

**Why Join I&J?**
- ** Industry Leader**: Work with a renowned brand known for premium Cape Hake and farmed Abalone.
- ** Sustainability Focused**: Contribute to responsible fishing practices with MSC accreditation.
- ** Community Impact**: Be part of a company that empowers and invests in local communities.

An exciting opportunity exists for a **National Key Accounts Manager**at **I&J**. As the successful incumbent you will lead the strategic and commercial management of the Shoprite Checkers national account, ensuring sustainable growth, profitability, and category leadership for I&J’s portfolio. The role is accountable for building long-term partnerships, driving joint business planning, and delivering excellence in pricing, promotions, innovation, and supply chain execution within the perishables and frozen food categories.

**Reporting Structure**:

- **Reports to**: Head of Sales

**Key Areas of Impact**:
**Strategic Account Leadership**
- Develop and implement the Shoprite Checkers national account strategy, aligned with I&J’s business objectives and growth ambitions.
- Lead the Joint Business Planning (JBP) process with Shoprite category and buying teams, ensuring alignment on volume, value, and category objectives.
- Establish a structured customer engagement rhythm - operational, category, and top-to-top meetings with clear agendas, scorecards, and follow-up actions.
- Proactively manage long-term customer relationships, building trust at all levels to secure sustainable competitive advantage.

**Sales and Profitability Delivery**
- Own and manage the account Profit and Loss (P&L), ensuring achievement of sales value, volume, gross margin, and profitability targets.
- Negotiate annual trading terms, price increases, and promotional investments, balancing customer competitiveness with business returns.
- Manage discounts, rebates, and trade spend to ensure maximum return on investment (ROI)
- Drive budget adherence and forecasting accuracy to meet AVI financial standards.
- Develop and capture rolling sales forecasts based on bottom-up demand predictions for the short-term forecast horizon - 1 to 6 months.
- Manage the sales delivery against the sales forecast and identify potential shortfalls against the financial sales budget.
- Develop demand generation - trade marketing & sales plans to close the gap against financial sales budget shortfalls.

**Category and Customer Development**
- Partner with Shoprite to grow frozen fish and protein categories, shaping assortment, shelf strategy, and pack architecture.
- Influence listing decisions and shelf-space allocations, ensuring compliance with Must-Stock-List (MSL) and expansion of numeric and weighted distribution.
- Collaborate with I&J Marketing and Category teams to deliver innovation launches, securing on-time listings and impactful activations.
- Support category performance reviews and make data-driven recommendations to enhance category growth and shopper relevance.

**Supply Chain and Execution Excellence**
- Provide accurate demand planning inputs to improve forecast accuracy and support factory production planning.
- Ensure Distribution Centre (DC-to-DC) supply efficiency with high case-fill rates, mínimal shorts, and strong order adherence.
- Drive on-shelf availability (OSA) and service metrics across all Shoprite banners, including e-commerce platforms for example Sixty60.
- Oversee the execution of promotional campaigns, ensuring compliance with agreed plans and flawless in-store and digital execution.

**Market and Customer Insights and Cross-Functional Collaboration**
- Leverage retailer data syndicated data - Circana, and internal systems to identify risks, opportunities, and trends.
- Prepare regular performance reviews, customer scorecards, risk and opportunity assessments for leadership and cross-functional teams.
- Lead cross-functional collaboration with Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, and Quality to align customer requirements with internal capabilities.
- Act as the internal advocate for Shoprite, ensuring that customer needs and market dynamics are understood and acted upon across the business

**What It Takes to Succeed**:
**Experience that set you up for success**:

- Minimum 5 years’ FMCG experience, with at least 3 years managing key accounts at a national level
- Demonstrated success in managing trading terms, price negotiations, and promotional calendars.
- Exposure to forecasting, demand planning, and supply chain coordination, particularly in high-volume reta