Job Summary:

Empire supports Meat/Seafood, Deli/Bakery, Produce, and Grocery suppliers in the Kroger stores which includes calling on all the stores in assigned territory within the established call frequency. In addition to ensuring best in class in-store merchandising to our customers, this role operates as the subject matter expert for their department’s products, with a high level of accountability for training customer associates on food safety, preparation techniques, order placement, and more.

Essential Functions:

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions:

• Product Placement & Maintenance

• Product Analysis & Reporting 

• Promotional Display Maintenance

• Customer Support and Training

• Other Administrative Duties

• Physical Requirements 

Core Functions:

• Product Placement & Maintenance

o Rotate product as required by customer/manufacturer for perishable merchandise and for merchandise requiring freshness checks.

o Conduct regular checks of store shelf tags to ensure continued distribution and assist with reordering of product.

o Ensure that all retail objectives and shelf standards are met and maintained in assigned territory.

o Keep sections set to customer’s schematic or stocking plan as is required or beneficial to manufacturer or clients.

o Maintain 100% distribution of all manufacturer-client products approved by the Kroger family of companies or Planogram (POG) team.

o Sell and service all principal accounts represented by Empire to ensure all the authorized items are on shelf and priced and tagged properly.

o Accurately and efficiently weigh, package, code date and label products as needed.

o Properly use food equipment to prepare and package foods and attend to special orders as needed.

o Responsible for maintaining the integrity of the customer specified job aids/recipes.

• Product Analysis & Reporting 

o Maintain and update all territorial records.

o Carefully review all sales reports to maintain awareness of progress toward assigned goals.

o Maintain competitive awareness and promptly report all information through proper channels.

o Report completely and on time using forms supplied and with the frequency requested.

o Utilization of reporting tools such as PowerBI or Go Spot Check to report on specific goals and targets.

o Responsible for introducing new ideas and sales opportunities for existing product in customer stores. 

o Adhering to inventory analysis and reporting processes as required by the customer/manufacturers’ established requirements.

• Promotional Display Maintenance

o Set up displays of manufacturer or client brands while working within the guidelines of customer regulations and manufacturer/client display objectives.

o Coordinate activities and cooperate with Operations regarding the execution of promotional programs.

o Execute point-of-sale material and Instant Redeemable Coupons to stores as required by the manufacturer or client and approved by the retailer. 

o Act as primary executer of large-scale projects including grand openings, remodels, and store walks of customer locations as needed.

• Customer Support and Training

o Establish and maintain rapport with all store personnel in assigned territories.

o Perform training demonstrations for customer employees regarding proper preparation and/or display of product.

o Practice and teach all food safety standards as established and required by the customer.

o On a daily basis, perform training for customer associates based on the manufacturer and customer specifications. Training performed in the following areas: 

§  Order placement, product-management and rotation, proper handling and logging of product, and sanitation standards. 

o Act as subject matter expert in their designated department in responding to customer queries. 

• Other Administrative Duties

o Attend and present at district meetings and training seminars with internal/customer leaders as needed.

o Timely communication requirements through various channels including email and telephone.

o Maintain territory files and company owned office equipment.

o Attend and participate in all scheduled company meetings.

o Exercise expense control within company guidelines. 

o Other duties as required.

  Education and Experience:

• High school diploma or equivalent required.

• Current Driver’s License and clean Motor Vehicle Report required.

• 3+ years of CPG/grocery/retail/food service industry related experience preferred.

Physical Requirements: 

• Ability to operate a motor vehicle and travel regularly between work sites.

• Additional travel as needed, which may include overnight stays.

• Prolonged periods of standing – 80% of the time.

• Ability to change positions between sitting, squatting, standing and kneeling on a regular basis.

• Regular lifting and moving up to 40-60 pounds from one location to another, sometimes several feet away from each other.

• Regular use of hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls and reach with hands and arms. 

• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and ability to see objects, information on computer screens, and/or view written information, from distances of 20-40 feet.

Tools and Equipment: 

• Regular operation of a personal motor vehicle to and from work sites.

• Regular operation of manual pallet jacks and hand trucks on work sites.

• Regular operation of sharp cutting objects, as needed 

• MS Excel

Work Environment: 

• Duties are typically performed in a retail grocery store setting, which could include refrigerated or freezer environments.

• Also required to be in outside facilities, including but not limited to, customer warehouses, kitchens, and manufacturer-client facilities, all of which require more safety precautions than a normal office environment. 

• Noise levels – typically moderate. 

Required Skills/Abilities: 

• Ability to write clear and concise correspondence.

• Ability to accurately exchange information.

• Excellent interpersonal and customer service skills.

• Infuse passion, creativity and enthusiasm with a positive winning attitude and a big friendly smile! 

• Role model and demonstrate the company’s core values of respect, honesty, integrity, diversity, inclusion and safety of others.

• Ability to be able to operate autonomously, with strong personal drive for results.

• Ability to effectively present information in one on one or group situations. 

• Ability to read and comprehend simple to sometimes complex instructions, correspondence, and memos. 

• Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.

• Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.

• Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.