Commercial Director

Leads the marketing and product purchasing functions to ensure sustainable, profitable growth by optimizing the effectiveness of the buying function and improving the effectiveness of marketing and promotion strategies.

Applicants are invited for the position of Commercial Director.

Leads the marketing and product purchasing functions to ensure sustainable, profitable growth by optimizing the effectiveness of the buying function and improving the effectiveness of marketing and promotion strategies. Manages the supply forecasting process by integrating sound demand plans and develops and executes sound go to market strategies to continually enhance and reinforce Unicomer’s market leadership position

Business Planning

• Contribute to the shaping of a holistic strategic business plan for the business by developing specific commercial plans for the various product categories and market segments targeted by the company to deliver or exceed annual expectations.
• Formulate annual and periodic procurement and marketing plans for all assigned    Product Categories to meet revenue, margin, customer experience, and market share and asset management business targets. 

Market Planning

• Use demand forecasting and strategic planning tools and techniques to support the promotion and sale of products and services offered in the prevailing market environment assuring delivery of target profitability
• Formulate, direct and coordinate marketing activities and policies in cooperation with Regional Marketing and the local Marketing and Credit teams to promote and drive products sales and influence consumer demand.
• Ensure appropriate and consistent monitoring and reporting on competitor activities (e.g. line ups, promotions, credit offers) and the overall trading environment to guarantee that Unicomer’s product lines retain their competitive edge in the market and ensure coherent and timely feedback to the Executive team.
• Formulate and manage the regional and local promotional calendar in consultation with the Managing Director, and Regional Marketing as appropriate, to ensure maximization of product sales and effective use of the total and specific marketing spend.
• Ensure effective communication of marketing initiatives throughout all stores so the intent is fully and accurately delivered in all branches.
• Support Regional Buying as necessary in negotiation of supplier terms and conditions that will deliver financial and brand management targets.
• Develops integrated marketing communication support materials that meet requirements in line with communications plans. Understands and uses good design principles in communications and produce communications copy and support materials that are focused, understandable and reflect the key strategies.
• Practices sound financial management by spending to budget and works with sales area to propose a sales budget that acknowledges market trends. Coordinates approved budgets for promotions that are tightly linked to goals.  Tracks the key financial measures and aligns them the financial goals of the business
• Lead the marketing intelligence and analytics processes to keep abreast of industry and market, and create plans to achieve share, penetration and profitability goals. Monitors/Conducts market metrics such as customer satisfaction, loyalty, and market share to determine potential activities and segments.
• Develop sustainable value propositions that communicate and enhance the Unicomer brand and clearly differentiates around core, company competencies. Prices products based on customer value and competitive positions, and tracks and capture the meaning of competitors pricing/marketing actions and ensure the timely and accurate update of pricing tickets.
• Perform brand asset management through competitive analyses, gains end-user perspectives to effectively manage the commercialization process of all product categories.
• Makes and leverages customer visits to gain end-user perspective of key brands and Unicomer.

Range Planning and Stock Management

• Develop and implement range plans that support the Company’s strategic and tactical objectives across key segments and product categories
• Ensure effective Stock Management including submission of accurate monthly product forecasts and order forms in accordance with supplier lead times and OTB parameters as determined by the Company. This will include the monitoring of orders and shipments and taking proactive measures to ensure that all sales and stock budgets are achieved. Management of Never Out Policy and aged stock.
• Review sales and inventory rotation figures across branches/product lines/brands and proactively lead and provide support to the Director of Sales, and the business as a whole to respond to prevailing demand conditions in a way consistent with the achievement of the agreed business objectives. Leverage the company’s information systems to analyse sub-category and SKU trends as well as customer purchase behaviour with the intention of using this information to improve the effectiveness of the relevant commercial activity.

Operational Efficiency

• Ensure the relevant information for the management of pricing tickets is accurate and available to internal and external stakeholders. Ensure adherence to the company’s pricing policy.
• Develop and manage a portfolio of preferred local suppliers, establish on-going    processes to ascertain and monitor supplier capability to meet Unicomer volume, quality and service requirements.
• Drive with the cooperation of the regional buyers, development of dual sourcing opportunities to respond to unforeseen break downs in regular supply channels or demand forecasting errors.

Customer Service Orientation and Partnering

• Partner with internal and external stakeholders to enhance the customer and Unicomer value propositions. 

Talent and Team Development

• Effectively manage and motivate the Buying and Marketing teams, to ensure that each member understands his/her role and that team and individual accountabilities/objectives are achieved.