Account Controller
Nomad Foods is Europe’s leading frozen food company and one of the largest in the world. Our portfolio of leading brands, anchored by Birds Eye, Findus and iglo, have been serving local European markets for generations and stand for food that is great tasting, high quality and convenient
Today, the businesses portfolio is entirely composed of European frozen food. With over €2 billion in annual revenues, Nomad Foods are a pan-European business offering a wide range of products across multiple categories including frozen fish, vegetables, ready meals, poultry, pizza and potatoes. As the #1 player, we have 14% share within Western Europe’s €26 billion savoury frozen food market and are more than two times the size of our nearest competitor.
The business are a strategic partner supplying all UK’s major supermarket chains.
The Brief
Nomad Foods required a highly experienced commercial leader with a proven track record with Tesco. The role reports into the Grocery Director and would be responsible for leading the team, and developing the sales strategy for their Tesco business. A hugely valuable customer, who are #1 in the UK.
The role purpose is to manage the business interface with our customer via the team in order to ‘Create Profitable Change’ at the Point of Purchase &/or anywhere within the entire Supply Chain of the customer to achieve individual customer category targets that are consistent with S&M strategies, customer needs and company budgets.
The brief was to find someone with a proven track record of driving growth with Tesco, ideally within the frozen foods category. The role required strong leadership, people development, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills.
We were seeking a highly commercial astute individual who knew how to get the retailer on side. Someone who can identify opportunities, has the influencing skills to win the listings and manage the teams internally to deliver.
We agreed to seek someone who was classically trained in a larger FMCG business, who had proven they could succeed in a business who are a market and category leader.
Most importantly we needed to find someone who lived the company values; Nomad Foods are a highly collaborative, purpose driven, and ambitious business who lead the way across Europe.
Alexander Steele Approach
The first step was a detailed discussion with the Grocery Director and recruitment team at Nomad Foods. The immediate challenges and opportunities of the role were shared with the Alexander Steele team. The calibre of candidate and key criteria were agreed, along with timescales and plans for the process.
We swiftly approached existing, ‘known’ individuals; sought recommendations from their extensive sector network and made targeted approaches to marketeers in appropriate peer businesses.
The shortlist consisted of candidates offering highly credible branded food manufacturing expertise harvested from time spent in category leading businesses. Essential to the role was their proven track record with Tesco as a customer. The successful individual was hard working and self-motivated with a proven track record delivering strong results in leadership roles, dealing with Tesco.
We fully pre-screened all candidates and had in depth conversations to identify and extract information on their Tesco and team management achievements. Under consideration was the candidates' branded products experience, processes and ways of working as well as seniority of contacts within the wider industry.
Outcome
The new Account Controller has been in situ since November 2023. They have settled into the team well, were brought up to speed swiftly and are building relationships internally. Both parties are very happy with the appointment and Alexander Steele have since engaged with the business on further recruitment projects.