Head of Retail Sales

About the Company

This opportunity is with a rapidly growing consumer brand in the Emerging Food, Healthy Snacks, and Better-For-You space. With strong market momentum, innovative products, and expanding retail distribution, the company is seeking a strategic and results-driven Head of Retail Sales to lead commercial growth and strengthen partnerships across national and regional retail channels. They are open to relocation.

Position Overview

The Head of Retail Sales will be responsible for developing and executing the company's retail sales strategy, driving revenue growth, expanding market share, and building high-impact relationships with key retail customers. This individual will serve as a key member of the leadership team and will own retail channel performance across grocery, natural, specialty, club, convenience, and mass retail accounts.

The ideal candidate brings a proven track record of success in food & beverage sales, deep retailer relationships, strong strategic leadership capabilities, and experience scaling emerging brands through periods of rapid growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a comprehensive retail sales strategy aligned with company growth objectives.
• Own retail revenue, volume, profitability, and market share performance.
• Lead relationships and negotiations with key retail partners, distributors, and brokers.
• Identify and secure new business opportunities across regional and national retailers.
• Develop annual account plans, promotional strategies, and joint business plans.
• Partner with marketing, supply chain, operations, finance, and demand planning teams to ensure successful execution of growth initiatives.
• Analyze market trends, competitive activity, and retailer performance data to identify growth opportunities.
• Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing sales organization.
• Manage trade spend and promotional investments to maximize ROI.
• Drive distribution gains, velocity growth, shelf placement improvements, and category expansion opportunities.
• Support forecasting, demand planning, and inventory management processes to align commercial goals with operational capabilities.
• Represent the company at industry events, trade shows, and customer meetings.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; MBA preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive sales leadership experience within the food & beverage, beverage, snack, or consumer packaged goods industry.
• Proven success managing national and regional retail accounts.
• Demonstrated history of exceeding revenue, distribution, and profitability targets.
• Experience scaling emerging, challenger, or high-growth CPG brands preferred.
• Strong understanding of retail economics, category management, trade marketing, and distributor management.
• Experience working with major retailers (ex. Kroger, Walmart, Target, Costco, Whole Foods, Sprouts, Albertsons, Publix, Ahold Delhaize, HEB) or similar accounts.
• Exceptional negotiation, relationship-building, and presentation skills.
• Strong analytical and financial acumen with experience leveraging data to drive commercial decisions.
• Prior experience leading and developing sales teams.
• Willingness to travel as needed.

Preferred Experience

• Functional beverages, healthy snacks, natural foods, sports nutrition, wellness products, organic products, or better-for-you brands.
• Emerging-growth brands with revenues ranging from startup through mid-market scale.
• Experience managing brokers, distributors, and omnichannel retail strategies.
• Exposure to DTC, e-commerce, Amazon, or omnichannel growth initiatives.

What Success Looks Like

• Accelerates retail revenue growth and profitability.
• Expands distribution across strategic retail channels.
• Builds strong retailer partnerships and customer loyalty.
• Develops scalable sales processes and commercial capabilities.
• Establishes the company as a leading brand within the better-for-you consumer products market.