Key Account Manager - Food Service

Job Summary:

The incumbent owns owns a portfolio of strategic HORECA customers as if they were a personal business—growing revenue, margin and share of wallet by acting as a trusted commercial and culinary advisor, not a price-driven order processor. This is explicitly not a traditional sales representative role. The Key Account Manager is the commercial owner of named strategic accounts, accountable for their growth, profitability, retention and satisfaction end-to-end, combining chef-level product credibility with disciplined commercial planning.

Job Responsibilities:

Account Planning

• Build and maintain a living account plan for every strategic customer: menu mix, current spend, whitespace opportunity, competitive exposure and growth actions.

• Prioritize accounts and time intelligently based on growth potential and profitability — not simply order size or ease of relationship.

Business Development

• Hunt for new strategic business within the assigned territory or segment, not just service existing volume.

• Identify expansion opportunities within existing groups (new outlets, new brands, new menus) as a primary growth lever.

Relationship Management

• Build multi-level relationships across chefs, procurement, F&B management and ownership — becoming the trusted advisor customers call before they call anyone else.

• Represent the voice of the customer internally, ensuring GMG's service, quality and product development respond to real operator needs.

Menu Consultation

• Understand each customer's menu, food cost structure and culinary direction well enough to propose product and cut solutions that improve their profitability, not just GMG's sell-through.

• Bring cooking-method and application knowledge (grilling, braising, sous-vide, portion control) into every menu conversation.

Cross-Selling & Upselling

• Actively introduce value-added, portioned, cooked and premium branded products into accounts historically bought on commodity protein.

• Grow penetration across the full portfolio — beef, lamb, poultry, seafood and manufactured products — rather than defending a single category.

Negotiation & Commercial Planning

• Negotiate pricing, terms and contracts that protect margin while securing long-term volume commitments.

• Build and defend the commercial rationale for every deal — understanding customer profitability, not just the company's own margin.

Pipeline Management & Forecasting

• Maintain accurate, live pipeline and forecast data in CRM — forecast accuracy is a core professional standard, not an administrative afterthought.

• Provide demand signals into supply chain and manufacturing planning for value-added and portioned lines.

Market Intelligence

• Track menu trends, competitor activity and emerging cuisine/format trends relevant to assigned accounts.

• Translate market intelligence into concrete account actions, not just reporting.

Customer Profitability, Product & Quality

• Understand customer-level profitability (mix, terms, service cost) and actively manage it, not just top-line revenue.

• Maintain expert-level product knowledge: cuts, grades, origin (including Brazilian Beef and Certified Angus Beef), cooking applications and shelf life.

• Own cold chain and quality standards understanding well enough to manage customer expectations and prevent avoidable complaints.

Complaint Resolution & Customer Retention

• Own resolution of quality, service or logistics complaints professionally and quickly — treating every complaint as a retention moment, not a nuisance.

• Proactively manage renewal and retention risk on strategic accounts before it becomes a lost-business event.

New Product Launches & Portfolio Expansion

• Lead the introduction of new products, cuts and origins into assigned accounts, educating chefs and procurement on application and value.

• Systematically expand portfolio penetration account by account as new capacity (portioning, value-added manufacturing) comes online.

Internal Collaboration

• Work closely with logistics, quality, manufacturing and trade marketing to ensure the customer promise is delivered end-to-end.

• Escalate operational risks (cold chain, supply, quality) before they become customer-facing failures.