Product Development Manager

General information Organisation About Vilmorin-Mikado: Vilmorin-Mikado is a Franco-Japanese seed producer that has specialized in creating, producing, and selling vegetable seeds for professionals since 1743. As a responsible partner in the vegetable food chain, Vilmorin-Mikado is committed to helping better nourish people everywhere. Our wide range of unique, original seeds is distributed on five continents in more than 100 countries. Vilmorin-Mikado has more than 1,000 employees and recorded sales of €230 million in 2022-2023, of which 15% was entirely devoted to research. World leader in carrots and witloof chicory, Vilmorin-Mikado is also a major player in salads, tomatoes, sweet peppers, kabocha squashes, daikon radishes and bunching onions. Nearly three centuries ago, Vilmorin-Mikado's founders began our Tree Seeds work, which actively contributes to rebuilding sustainable forests.

Vilmorin-Mikado is part of Limagrain, an agricultural cooperative and an international seed group owned by French farmers. Limagrain breeds, produces, and distributes field seeds, vegetable seeds and agri-food products. Focused on the genetic progress of plants, Limagrain is the fourth largest seed group worldwide.

Reference 2023-8976

Location Funo

Position description Employment Type Regular Full Time

Contractual hours Full-time

Function SALES & MARKETING - SALES

Main Goal Job description DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY COORDINATOR: manage the annual budget, design the local trials plan per area, including sample seeds needs, timing and check variety; Define and supervise the implementation of the experimental plan at national level; Propose the variety to advance/stop/retry to the company. Collect and guarantee the synthesis and sharing of information about the varieties to Product manager, crop specialist and all the Italian team (New product positioning);

MARKET INTELLIGENCE: Knowledge of the Italian market, describe market needs, maintain and update a market intelligence database for the area and anticipate market trends in the Italian market.

CUSTOMERS KNOWLEDGE: contribute to the customer needs intelligence in collaboration with the sales team referent "market data, accessibility, penetrability, market shares and competition".

COMMUNICATION, PROMOTION & TECHNICAL SUPPORT: manage the Italian communication budget and coordinate the action regarding advertising/Publicity/events; manage launch phases of the pre-commercial product: bring product knowledge of new varieties to train sales team to design sales arguments. Participate in the construction of promotional tools for new varieties; Support the sales team in the realization of the promotion action of new varieties. Provide adapted technical advice to the customers with recommendation/support in collaboration with the sales team.

SALES FORECAST: in collaboration with sales representatives participate in the design of the sales forecast for new varieties.

TEAM MANAGEMENT: leadership focused on optimization, collaboration and security. Manage directly a team of 7 LPP and 1 communication coordinator. The main activities are in the Center-South and Sicily.

COLLABORATE WITH SUB MANAGER: support the follow-up of the projects.

FULL AVAILABILITY TO BUSINESS TRIP: This position includes many trips throughout the country and abroad (50% of working days). 80% of traveling work is in Italy in the regions of Abruzzo, Lazio, Campania, Sicily, Emilia Romagna, Veneto where LPP's are located.

The position reports to the Subsidiary Manager and is part of the management team.

Skills: what we expect of you We require:

Graduation in agriculture Customer orientation Good abilities in sales and relationships Teamwork Good motivation and determination to reach objectives English (written and spoken) Good level of computer usage (Microsoft Office programs) Minimum level of experience required: 5 years or more. Experience in the seeds and vegetable sector would be considered an asset.

Company VILMORIN ITALIA

Local contract Local contract only

Position localization Job location Europe, Italy

Location Centergross, 40050 Zona Artigianale Funo BO, Italy

Candidate criteria Minimum level of education required Master's degree

Specific expertise Agriculture/Agronomy Food Biology Minimum level of experience required 5 years or more

Languages Italian (4 - Fluent) English (4 - Fluent) Requester Position start date 01/11/2024

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