Distribution Channel Manager, Sri Lanka

General Safety & Health Responsibilities:

• Comply with local governmental HSE regulations, with Lesaffre fundamental principles and apply the safety Policy,
• Participate in entity safety activities and always show best examples (Rules application, PPE wearing, perform safety visits, accident analysis, safety committees…),
• Participate actively in the risk assessment of own’s job area
• Follow the safety action plan of own perimeter,
• Make safety rules in your perimeter, communicate it, make sure your team understands and applied them,
• Start all meetings (from 8 persons minimum) by a safety contact,
• Encourage safe acts and discourage each time you see unsafe acts,
• Report unsafe conditions / acts and near misses to the managers,
• Report within 12 hours all recordable accidents to the next level of management,
• Report each month all recordable accidents and first aids happened in your perimeter,
• Participate in the target-setting process for the safety KPIs,
• Be a part of recognition & sanction program.

Safety & Health Responsibilities within Sales Force & Marketing:

• Respect company rule regarding travel safety,
• Apply our safety rules over and above those of our customers if there are no similar rules (safety shoes, goggles, etc.),
• Apply and respect safe driving rules,
• Make sure all gift or external communication supports are online with “safety spirit” (good for health, safe, environmentally friendly).

Roles and Responsibilities

You will be responsible to strengthen the partnerships with our existing distributors in a growing market. This includes customizing the company channel partner strategy to the Sri Lanka market specifics, mobilizing company and its distributors’ resources on key targets and deploying coordinated marketing actions to maximize their impact:

• Undertake partners activities to sustain and develop sales in Sri Lanka.
• Together with APAC team, and in coordination with distributors, develop and implement marketing plans to ensure growth of the partners’ business.
• Manage distributors & engage with distributors salesmen & merchandisers to gain focus, analyse performance of the partners.
• Leveraging the distributors relationships to gather market data from their territories to identify and develop new business opportunities - distribution/visibility.
• Develop new market/channel opportunities based on the market’s needs.
• Enhance contracts with the channel partners.
• Ensuring compliance with distributors agreements and, if necessary, implement corrective action plans when faced with underperforming territories.

Qualifications and Experiences

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Marketing, Economics or relevant major; MBA is preferred.
• Minimum 5 or more years in business managerial experience within sales, marketing, trade marketing or commercial functions.
• Preferred to have 5 or more years in an international company, specialized in Food, Food ingredients industry, ideally in B2B environment.
• Have a strong knowledge in sales and trade relationship building skills.
• Experienced in distributor management, business development/account management.
• Have effective negotiation skills.
• Good communication skills, stakeholder engagement and people management skills.
• Intensive domestic travel frequency, regional and international travel may be required occasionally.
• Fluent in English and Sinhalese.

Lesaffre presence in Asia Pacific has been established for decades. With Asia Pacific regional headquarter based in Singapore, we aim to serve our customers in this region with better engagement and service. Proximity to our customers is one of our core missions. This ensures Lesaffre can collaborate with local bakers to create regional specialties and anticipate trends.

We seek highly dynamic and enthusiastic individuals to explore the opportunity to be part of Lesaffre. The ideal candidate will demonstrate the ability to balance strategic vision with practical execution, ensuring Asia Pacific continued development as a vital part of our global operations.

Lesaffre is opening a new position to manage the distribution network in the Sri Lanka. This position will report to the Cluster Sales Manager, SEA.