Key Account Manager, Alternative Channels

Company Description

At BIC®, we bring simplicity and joy to everyday life. Our Human Expression, Blade Excellence and Flame for Life products create a sense of ease and delight in the millions of moments that make up the human experience. We reimagine everyday essentials that are present in over 4 million retail outlets in more than 160 countries around the world.

Our founder, Marcel Bich, understood that to succeed, we needed team members who dreamt big and created clever, simple, yet bold solutions. Today, we provide our more than 15,000 team members in 61 countries with the opportunity to build products that are high-quality, safe, affordable, essential and for everyone, everywhere. We are committed to our team members’ development and empower those who wish to discover different areas of our business or acquire international experiences.

**Job Description**:
The Key Account Manager (KAM) contributes to our Vision and Values by maximizing profitable growth of the BIC Brand in alternative channels. This position will be responsible for direct account management of key customers and establishing business with new customers within the Discount, DIY, Cannabis, Alternative and Tobacco channels plus management of our third-party broker which covers regional Food and Drug retailers in Western Canada.

This person must maintain high-level customer contacts and relationships. This position also has the responsibility to communicate and implement BIC national initiatives, policies, and standards to cross functional groups including: The Merchant Teams, Logistics, Inventory, Marketing, Forecasting, Promotional Planning and Finance. Internally, it is imperative that the KAM communicates our customers’ needs across the BIC structure and leads in developing and implement business building programs.

Role Details & Responsibilities:

- Meets or exceeds sales forecast objectives, and achieves distribution, pricing, promotion, and shelving objectives to grow market share within key product segments
- Negotiates business plans that achieve short and long-term volume and profit goals
- Manages trade budget to optimize return on investment
- Develops expertise of customer business needs, category and market, competitive strategy, and BIC internal operating policies and procedures
- Builds long-term relationships with customer’s key personnel
- Identifies white space opportunities in the market and develops and executes plans to secure new business/customers
- Develops conceptual presentations and leads, organizes, and facilitates both internal and external teams to meet customer needs
- Directs broker on category growth objectives and key customer growth strategies
- Provides account and category sales reports via Cognos and Power BI to customers
- Works closely with the Supply-Demand Planning Team at BIC and customer to ensure correct product forecast is implemented and executed
- Provides insights to the internal team on cannabis retail trade

**Qualifications**:

- Minimum 3 years of account management experience within the CPG industry
- Post-secondary education, degree in business preferred
- Leadership skills to drive initiatives and align cross-functional teams (Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain) with objectives
- Ability to deal with ambiguity and develop methods, procedures, techniques, and ideas in new, undefined and rapidly changing situations.
- Ability to take initiative and manage a challenging and demanding workload
- A high degree of skill and knowledge in customer business planning, category management, retailer financials, supply chain management.
- Self-motivated, positive attitude, and strong negotiation skills

This position requires a home office and scheduled days at the Toronto, Ontario BIC office. Occasional travel within Ontario and to Western Canada is required.