Account Manager - Beverages UK&IR
About Kerry Kerry is the world's leading taste and nutrition company for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Every day we partner with customers to create healthier, tastier and more sustainable products that are consumed by billions of people across the world. Our vision is to be our customers' most valued partner, creating a world of sustainable nutrition. A career with Kerry offers you an opportunity to shape the future of food while providing you opportunities to explore and grow in a truly global environment. About the role We are looking for a high impact Account Manager to accelerate growth within our UK & Ireland beverage retail business. This is a home-based role, offering the opportunity to shape the commercial agenda for one of the most dynamic categories in the food and beverage industry today. Reporting to the Sales Director, you will take full ownership for growing, building, and leading commercial activities across a defined customer portfolio. This includes winning new customers, unlocking new opportunities, and scaling them into long term, profitable partnerships. You will represent Kerry’s breadth of technology, capabilities, and solutions, delivering strategic value to customers while driving sustainable growth for the business. This is a highly visible, strategically important role where you will influence customer partnerships, commercial strategy, innovation pipelines, and long term category direction. Key responsibilities Identify, engage, and win new customers, taking them from early stage prospect through to established commercial partner. Build and manage a robust pipeline of high quality beverage opportunities aligned to Kerry’s strategic priorities. Demonstrate a proven ability to secure early wins and scale new accounts from the ground up. Proactively defend and grow existing business, ensuring strong customer retention and satisfaction. Develop senior level, strategic relationships across customer organisations — including R&D, Marketing, Procurement and Category. Foster strong cross functional collaboration within Kerry to deliver seamless customer solutions. Partner with R&D, Business Development, Marketing, Pricing, Regulatory, Finance, manufacturing and other support functions to deliver high quality customer outcomes. Communicate progress of monthly and quarterly objectives to internal stakeholders, delivering all KPIs. Lead customer pricing discussions and negotiations with support from Commercial Finance. Manage sales contracts, demand planning, phasing, and forecast accuracy. Collaborate with regional colleagues across other markets to share insights and adopt best practice approaches. Proactively manage customer needs, anticipate challenges, and exceed customer expectations through best in class service. Qualifications and skills Exceptional project management capability with strong cross functional leadership Agility and resilience — comfortable operating in ambiguous situations and creating structure where needed Strong commercial acumen, negotiation experience, and analytical capability Skilled at managing multiple internal and external relationships with influence and credibility Solutions focused with a commitment to delivering best in class customer experience Excellent communication, interpersonal, and active listening skills. Working knowledge of food science and the product development lifecycle. Understanding of raw material markets and cost drivers. Willingness to travel to customer sites as required. High emotional intelligence, curious mindset, adaptability, and a positive, persuasive style. Passion for food, taste, and helping customers deliver products consumers love at scale. Why join us? In Kerry we benefit from the knowledge of our colleagues who bring a diverse range of cultures, backgrounds, lifestyles, and experiences. One team fostering an inclusive culture that, above all, inspires food and nourishes life. One culture where everyone brings their unique perspectives and experiences to help make us better, together. We are committed to nurturing an environment of positivity and inclusiveness, where everyone can be at their best, both personally and professionally. Our recruitment, selection and assessment process are based on the skills and competencies of the specific roles and based entirely on merit. We are committed to and value Diversity and Inclusion in all recruitment processes within Kerry and do not discriminate based on gender, race, class, economic status, ethnic background, sexual orientation, age, political beliefs, veteran status, marital status or any other protected characteristic. Beware of scams online or from individuals claiming to represent us. A Kerry employee will not solicit candidates through a non-Kerry email address or phone number. In addition, Kerry does not currently utilise video chat rooms (e.g., Google Hangouts) to conduct interviews. Refuse any request that asks you to provide payment to participate in the hiring process (e.g., purchasing a “starter kit,” investing in training, or something similar). Kerry will not ask you to pay any money at any point in the hiring process with the exception of reimbursable travel expenses. In addition, any payments made by Kerry will be from official firm accounts bearing the Kerry name. Please note We do not accept CVs or candidate profiles from recruitment agencies where Kerry terms of business have not been signed. Additionally, we will not consider or agree to payment of any recruiter fee under these circumstances. This also applies to CVs or candidate profiles sent directly to any Kerry Hiring Managers. 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