Sales Manager - South West (UK)

Job Title:                            South West Sales Manager (UK)Position:                             Full time, Monday to FridayWorking hours:                  08:30-17:00 with 30 minute break/day

Some overnight stays will be expected and some trade events may continue into the evening. A role like this will always contain some flexibility and you should work with your line manager to ensure there’s a suitable balance with office hours and out-of-hours tasks.

Responsible to:                  UK Head of SalesLocation:                            SW England, ideally between Exeter and Bristol

We’ll certainly review candidates who are located elsewhere but this region would be approximately central to the areas of responsibility.

Areas of responsibility:2025: BA, BH, DT, EX, GY, JE, PL, SP, TA, TQ, TR postcodes2026: adding SN, SO, BS postcodes2027: adding CF, GL, NP, SA postcodes

Starting with what is initially the smallest geographical area within our team, expanding in two phases in 2026 and 2027 to roughly balance out with the other Faram’s Sales Managers. The assigned postcodes and 2026 and 2027 plans could change over time and serve as a guide.

Pay:                                       £40,000 p/a or depending on experience, plus car allowance

May apply to use the company’s salary sacrifice electric car scheme from their second year of employment. A group performance bonus scheme exists, applying from the first full financial year of employment (July to June).

Holiday:                               32 days incl. bank holidays

Three days of which are assigned to a Christmas closedown period each year.

Start date:                           September 2025Closing date:                       31stof July 2025

Interviews are likely to take place in both Exeter and Worcester. Two stages of in-person interview may be necessary to complete the appointment.

Hello, and thank you for reading.

Applying for roles takes time, thought and research. This document will give you a better idea of who we are, how we work and help you to decide if you are right for us and, more importantly, if we are right for you.

It’s long, and I get that this is challenging. The length is intentional because we feel it’s important. Jobs are where we spend a lot of time and energy so, like any relationship, it’s made better with plentiful, quality communication.

What is this role?

The position of Sales Manager includes being responsible for creating positive customer interactions in person and digitally, proactively achieving new business opportunities, retaining and expanding current sales and furthering effective relationships. It is essential that we support our customers’ businesses and form part of their supply-chain management, using expert knowledge to give the best advice.

This is a broad role with a high level of influence over how we work to be the best brewery ingredients supplier for our customers, helping them to make good buying decisions.

We encourage Sales Managers to support their customers in their own working style.

Why is this role available?

The last five years for hospitality, brewing, hop growing and processing, have all been years of various crises. Everyone’s margins have been battered, throughout the supply chain. We paused on adding a colleague specifically for this area until it felt appropriate to do so, and are now investing in order to increase the service level for brewers in the region.

Who are we?

We are Charles Faram: a grower-owned hop merchant located between Worcester and Malvern. The business has operated since 1865 and is led by Paul Corbett, who has been with Faram’s since 1989. The company has grown significantly in the last 30+ years, with just over 40 staff in the UK.

We take the long view and believe that healthy, mutually loyal relationships are the best ones, based on fairness and understanding.  We want to continuously earn our customers’ trust and we are proud to do so.

We are a hop specialist and a one-stop shop for many breweries’ malt, yeast and brewing aid needs but if you’re reading this, you may know that already.  We have a huge range, fantastic cold storage and processing facilities. Our helpful teams ensure that customers are looked after and partnered with.

Our working atmosphere is warm, respectful, promotes proactivity and good teamwork. We are the sum of our colleagues.

The UK breweries we deal with are incredibly diverse in size and style. There are many small, traditional breweries and large, modern breweries with trend-setting flavours. Equally, there are many small, modern breweries and large, traditional breweries producing classic styles. No brewery is the same and each is an essential customer. The brewing sector thrives on co-operation and shared learning.

We also look to the future, working with both the national UK hop development programme as well as our own (in the UK and abroad). This is how we select and breed new varieties.  These efforts are part of improving environmental sustainability with more resistant, hardy plants and increasing flavour and quality for brewers.

Who are we looking for?

There are a few routes into this role: you might have been in the brewing sector for many years, you might have been selling beer into and looking after a range of different outlets, you might be the wildcard candidate that defies all our guesses about who the ideal person would be.

Most importantly, we’re looking for someone who loves the sector, who gets the company ethos about working in partnership with our customers for the long term. We’re one team, in many places and in many roles, and everyone in the business is essential.

It’s very important to us that candidates feel that they’re interviewing the company as well as being interviewed, so you being questioning during this process will be very beneficial to us both, and in working with customers and colleagues.

Main duties and responsibilities

·      Help customers to make good buying decisions.

·      Promote the full range of Charles Faram products and creative solutions that meet customers’ needs.

·      Support the achievement of company targets and your part within those.

·      Aid customers in their supply chain management by promoting appropriate levels of forward contracting for hop supplies.

·      Managing and negotiating customer contracts to keep them to suitable terms.

·      Spend appropriate time with customers on visits and in conversation whilst also managing your own admin (e.g. two days working from home and three days with customers per week, subject to circumstances).

·      Build on your own expertise, earn customers’ trust and help them to succeed, creating mutually beneficial outcomes.

·      Retain and expand the current customer base (perhaps ~85% of your time).

·      Re-/acquire lapsed and new accounts (perhaps ~15% of your time).

·      Network effectively within the sector, including at trade events and with our supply partners, and build positive relationships with colleagues.

·      Problem solve for customers, using your own technical knowledge or by liaising with others to achieve a solution.

·      Other duties as needed by the company.

Key skills

·      Excellent commercial knowledge, decision-making ability and sales interest.

·      The ability to achieve a high level of accuracy in your work and demonstrate willingness to investigate and solve problems (also to delegate such tasks to appropriate colleagues where needed).

·      The ability to structure your work within a field-based setting where you are often working independently and physically apart from colleagues.

·      To be able and confident in earning and building trust with customers of all sizes.

·      To have high-level communication skills and the confidence to speak with business owners.

·      To be keen to learn from colleagues, to seek out and to share knowledge.

·      To be able to negotiate effectively, delivering quality and value for customers in line with company expectations.

·      The ability to prioritise your workload in a fast-paced sector where customers frequently work to tight deadlines.

·      To be comfortable using technology and a variety of platforms.

Desirable knowledge and/or experience

·      Microsoft Office: Outlook, Word and Excel.

·      SAP Business ByDesign – useful but not essential.

·      Customer-facing experience, which can dramatically improve call-handling and sales confidence.

·      A strong personal interest in learning more about the brewing industry and supporting our customers’ journeys through it.

What happens next?

To apply for this role, please write to jamiemaclellan@charlesfaram.co.uk

Please include a CV. We’ll discuss references with the successful candidate.

Please write a cover letter, which could be a few paragraphs or a whole page. This is normally where a lot of your personality comes through and that can be even more helpful than the CV, so that we can understand what you want and what you can offer to the role.

Candidates who are invited to interview will be asked to present a six-month outline of how they would envisage spending their initial time in the role. This helps us to understand your commercial approach, perspective on the industry and our place in it, our customer’s needs and how we need to support your knowledge and growth.

Thank you again for reading.

Jamie MacLellan

UK Head of Sales

Charles Faram & Co Ltd