General Manager/Director Sales & Marketing - Canada

We’re passionate about bringing the love of baking and decorating to everyone, everywhere, every day.

Wilton Brands LLC (“Wilton”) is owned by Dr. August Oetker KG, a privately held company based in Germany. Dr. Oetker is a global leader in the food and beverage industries. Learn more about Wilton at http://www.wilton.com .

The General Manager of the Canada Sales & Marketing team is the lead management role for the Canadian Sales & Marketing Office with Strategy and P&L management responsibility. The successful candidate will be a strategic commercial leader responsible for the sales strategy for the Canada business unit and managing the overall commercial business operations. He/She will be accountable for the overall sales performance, and the development and implementation of short and long-term plans that drive profitable revenue growth in their respective channels. The successful candidate will bring a strong background in branded consumer products and must have experience across a wide variety of retail channels, including Mass, Grocery, Craft, Specialty, and Ecommerce. This individual will bring a strong set of skills in effective planning, negotiation, strategy alignment, joint business plan ownership, and will identify opportunities for new business development. The General Manager has responsibility for managing a team of Sales, Sales Operations, and Marketing employees and must have experience with product development for the Canadian market and translation/adaptation for market specific needs. This leader will be responsible for creating a results-driven, collaborative, and customer focused team through a brand of inspirational and motivational leadership. This position will be based in our office in Newmarket, Ontario.

• Directly responsible for driving profitable revenue growth for Wilton in the Canadian Market.
• P&L management responsibility down to Gross Margin 2 for the Canadian market.
• Develop and own the sales strategy including the go to market strategy and lead the alignment of critical resources to execute strategy.
• Clear communication of strategy, vision and directions to Canada Sales team.
• presenting sales data and ownership of results.
• Define the appropriate sales organizational structure to serve our business ambition.
• Right team prioritization: new customers, Amazon, customer optimization, and category management.
• Establish and grow strategic partnerships with key retail, broker, distribution and sales merchandising partners and solid, team-oriented relationships with the operations, finance, marketing, category, compliance and product organizations within Wilton.
• Provide people management, development and leadership that will result in collaboration, creativity, accountability, efficiency and strengthened customer relations.
• Provide inspiring leadership, and routinely conduct performance and capabilities evaluation, team assessment, coaching and development of the team to support individual and aligned business objectives and personal development.
• Lead goal setting and review process and set high standards and expectations for self and others.
• Serve as full cross functional team lead: marketing, sales, and sales support.
• Work and team coordination and integration with the USA processes: S&OP, Finance Management, Customer Management, Integrated Business Planning as well as cross border USA customer optimization (e.g. Bed Bath & Beyond, Party City, Costco, Michaels).
• Manage sales operations; i.e. project management, forecasting, program execution.
• Establish and develop collaborative multifunctional relationships with key retail partners (at the buyer, marketing, operations, and senior levels) to ensure open, strategic communication, leveraging opportunities for Wilton.
• Create and establish strategic advantages to bring unique channel offerings and drive consumer engagement and ultimately POS.
• Develop strategies related to new distribution channels and new retail customers and translate them into actionable customer initiatives.
• Deliver on-time, reliable and accurate sales forecasts and sales reports.
• Always monitor and understand the competitive environment and provide feedback to company’s cross-functional partners and leadership team.
• Establish clear performance expectations, including detailed account plans and metrics that instill a high performance-oriented, results-driven culture.
• Provide opportunities to develop and build key skills with sales associates to ensure continuous personal development, process improvement and job satisfaction that support professional growth, succession planning and performance management.
• Ensure all Wilton Culture, values and strategic vision and objectives are embedded in the Canadian Team
• Liaise with The Dr. Oetker Food Group sister companies to optimize group synergies.

Education and Experience:

• Minimum 7 years’ experience in branded consumer products in Mass and Grocery channel required.
• Experience with Walmart, Canadian Tire, Loblaws, Bulk Barn is required. Craft/Michael’s, and Amazon experience preferred.
• Minimum 5 years of experience leading teams in sales leadership positions in consumer goods organization required.
• Minimum 5 years of experience with product development for the Canadian market is required.
• Lead management role for the Canadian office; experience managing a sales office (landlord interface/misc. office management) required.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Proven experience of delivering incremental category growth and profitability with retail partners.
• Ability to drive and improve business results and operate with a growth mindset; high financial acumen with a clear understanding of P&L management, margin generation, sales, and operating numbers for his/her portfolio.
• This remote leadership role requires advanced communication and cross functional collaboration.
• Strong financial acumen demonstrating a disciplined approach to analyzing and presenting
• Experience working for a division of/or a remote office where they are dependent on a US (or International) HQ and shared services for support in order to achieve goals.
• Demonstrated creative problem solving and decision-making skills, with a strong analytical thought process.
• A change agent adaptable to pivoting situations; able to influence both new and tenured talent, channeling their passion for the work towards a profitable bottom line.
• Strong Category principles and analytical skills, quickly critiquing product categories, customer trends and markets and communicate how they apply to driving sales at our key customers.
• A strong background in delivering and storytelling of consumer led, business plans.
• Experience aligning communication, people, culture, processes, resources, and systems to ensure effective implementation and delivery of required business results.
• Outstanding leadership and people management skills; viewed as a team builder, coach and developer of talent.
• Experience and expertise building collaborative relationships internally and externally.
• Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills; clearly presents information and ideas through a variety of media to engage the audience; commands attention and can effectively manage groups during presentations.
• Entrepreneurial spirit and desire to lead sales in a fast-paced business environment.

Physical Demands/Work Requirements:

• Ability to travel 40% or as required.
• Professional work environment; this role is sedentary in nature and requires the ability to be seated at a desk for majority of the work day.
• Ability to routinely use standard office equipment such as laptop computers, computer monitors/keyboards, telephones, copier/printers

Wilton Brands LLC is an equal employment opportunity employer. We attract and retain the best qualified people without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, individuals with disability or veteran status as provided by law. Wilton Brands LLC is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran.

If you need accommodation to access the information provided on our website, please contact us at 630-810-2416 or send an e-mail to:  careers@wilton.com We will be happy to help you!