Commercial Director - Wheat & Maize Milling at Parrogate Zimbabwe (PVT) Ltd – Harare

To provide strategic leadership and direction for all commercial activities of the wheat and maize milling business, ensuring sustainable revenue growth, profitability, market expansion and customer satisfaction. The Commercial Director is responsible for developing and implementing sales and marketing strategies, managing product pricing, overseeing customer relationships, identifying new business opportunities, coordinating demand forecasts with production, and ensuring effective distribution of flour, mealie-meal, bran and other milling by-products. The role requires strong commercial and financial acumen, an understanding of grain and milling markets, and the ability to translate business objectives into measurable sales, volume, margin and cash collection results.

Duties and Responsibilities:
3.1 Commercial Strategy and Business Development: Develop and implement the overall commercial strategy, identify opportunities to increase revenue, conduct market research and competitor analysis, identify and develop new markets, establish strategic relationships, develop commercial plans for milling divisions, evaluate opportunities for supply contracts, and advise management on market opportunities.
3.2 Sales Management and Revenue Generation: Lead and manage the sales function to achieve approved targets, develop sales budgets, oversee product sales, develop and maintain a strong customer base, secure high-volume customers and negotiate agreements, monitor sales performance, ensure effective management of sales pipelines, develop sales incentive programmes, and monitor customer buying patterns.
3.3 Pricing, Product Costing and Profitability: Develop and recommend competitive pricing strategies, work closely with Finance and Production on product costs, monitor gross margins, ensure selling prices reflect market conditions, review discounts and promotional offers, analyse product profitability, monitor financial impact of milling changes, and ensure pricing decisions are supported.
3.4 Marketing, Branding and Product Development: Develop and implement marketing strategies, oversee promotional campaigns and product launches, ensure effective positioning of products, work with relevant departments on new product opportunities, monitor competitor brands, develop marketing initiatives for various customers, evaluate commercial return on marketing expenditure, and ensure compliance of marketing materials.
3.5 Production Planning and Finished Goods Availability: Coordinate with Production, Procurement, Warehousing and Logistics to align sales forecasts with production schedules, ensure customer orders are consistent with availability, monitor finished goods inventory, review sales forecasts against actual demand, monitor order fulfilment, work with Production to improve commercial utilisation of milling capacity, coordinate the sale of by-products, and escalate production constraints.
3.6 Distribution and Logistics Management: Develop and oversee an effective distribution strategy, ensure products reach customers efficiently and reliably, monitor delivery performance and costs, coordinate with Logistics and Warehousing, evaluate effectiveness of distribution channels, identify opportunities to reduce distribution costs, ensure proper product handling, and monitor delivery-related customer complaints.
3.7 Customer Relationship Management: Build and maintain strong relationships with key accounts, negotiate supply contracts and payment terms, monitor customer satisfaction, ensure customer complaints are resolved promptly, identify opportunities to grow revenue from existing customers, monitor customer demand patterns, and ensure customer commitments are realistic.
3.8 Credit Management and Debtors Control: Work with Finance to implement and enforce credit policies, monitor debtor balances and collection performance, ensure sales teams support collections, review creditworthiness of new customers, ensure sales growth is supported by sound credit management, recommend credit restrictions for unacceptable exposure, monitor bad debt risks, and ensure proper documentation of credit terms.
3.9 Financial Planning, Budgeting and Reporting: Prepare the annual commercial budget and sales forecasts, monitor actual performance against budgets, prepare and present commercial performance reports, analyse variances, monitor key financial metrics, work with Finance to evaluate financial viability of contracts, identify opportunities to improve commercial returns, and provide management with market intelligence.
3.10 Compliance, Quality and Risk Management: Ensure commercial operations comply with laws and policies, work with Quality Assurance on product quality, ensure product labelling and marketing claims comply, monitor commercial risks, ensure controls over customer contracts, promote ethical conduct, and escalate material commercial risks.

- Bachelor's degree in Sales and Marketing, Business Management, Commerce, Finance or a related field.
- An MBA or postgraduate qualification in Business Administration, Strategic Management or Marketing will be an added advantage.
- At least 8–10 years of relevant commercial, sales or business development experience.
- Experience in wheat milling, maize milling, grain trading, food manufacturing or FMCG distribution is a MUST.
- Proven track record in achieving sales growth, managing commercial budgets, improving profitability and expanding market share.
- Demonstrated experience in pricing, product costing, distribution management, customer credit and key account management.
- Experience managing sales teams and developing effective sales and marketing strategies.
- Strong understanding of grain markets, milling products, food distribution and the commercial drivers of manufacturing profitability.