Specialist Business Development - Africa Export

About the role

The Hershey Company is looking for a Specialist Business Development professional for its Export Cluster, based in Dubai. The role leads the expansion of Hershey's footprint across Africa by opening new markets and new customers, while strengthening performance with existing Regional Distributors. It suits a self-starting, entrepreneurial operator who has personally opened export markets before, has an established network of contacts across the region and is comfortable owning the full commercial agenda end-to-end in a lean, start-up-style setup with minimal day-to-day oversight.

Key responsibilities

• Identify, prospect and open new customers and markets across Africa, using an existing network of regional contacts, and build go-to-market approaches for markets with little or no current presence.
• Develop and execute customer growth plans and joint business plans for newly onboarded accounts.
• Manage and grow relationships with current Regional Distributors, monitor their performance, compliance and route-to-market effectiveness, and partner with them to improve sales execution and coverage.
• Navigate import, trade and regulatory requirements for the African markets, and track competitive activity and regulatory shifts.
• Ensure strong in-store execution, drive visibility, distribution and assortment objectives, and support innovation launches and promotions.
• Analyse sales trends, customer performance and new-market pipeline, and support forecasting and business planning for the Export Cluster.

Required profile

• Minimum 4-7 years of commercial experience in FMCG, with a track record in export or new-market business development.
• Demonstrated experience personally opening new markets and/or new customers in Africa.
• An established, ready-to-activate network of trade and distributor contacts across Africa.
• Working knowledge of the regulatory and trade landscape across Africa.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Commerce or a related discipline.
• Entrepreneurial, agile operator comfortable working independently with minimal supervision.

Required skills

• Key account management and distributor management experience.
• Strong commercial and negotiation skills.
• Preferred: e-commerce experience, experience in multinational FMCG organisations, and additional regional languages relevant to the African market.

What we offer

• Medical insurance and wellness programmes.
• Competitive pay and annual incentive opportunities.
• Paid time off, company holidays and flexible ways of working where applicable.
• Career development programmes, learning opportunities and internal mobility.