Opportunity · Based in Germany
Head of Sales - Germany
You create, for the first time, the commercial leadership for LDC's operations in Germany, within a major European poultry group. You take direct charge of the German sales teams, build a direct relationship with the retail trade, and carry an ambition of strong organic growth by 2030.
Permanent role · English is the working language · French a real asset
280 → 500 M€
Revenue ambition for Germany by 2030
~100 M€
Organic growth to build, your direct mandate
2 offices
German sales teams you lead directly
The context
The group you are joining
LDC International generates close to 7 billion euros in revenue. It is a food group specialised in poultry, with a deeply decentralised culture: each entity keeps its autonomy, decisions are made close to the field, and coordination rests on shared values rather than vertical hierarchy.
In Germany, the group generates 280 M€ in revenue, spread across three commercial flows that, until now, have each been managed separately. Bringing them together is the purpose of this role.
Your playing field
Three flows to unify
Flow 1 · 75 M€
Local German production, ECF
LDC owns a German company, ECF, with its own sales force. You work in close cooperation with its managing director, as peers, to build the shared country vision. No hierarchical authority here, coordination by value.
Flow 2 · ~100 M€ · You lead this directly
The two LDC sales offices
Cologne / Ruhr, focused on grocery retail: a manager was just recruited, starting in October, 3 key accounts, a team of 4. The Southern office, focused on foodservice: 2 salespeople and an assistant. Two geographies, two selling cultures. Structuring and leading these teams is your first concrete task.
Flow 3 · ~100 M€
Sales from the other subsidiaries
Several of the group's subsidiaries in France, Poland and Hungary sell into the German market through traders and intermediaries. You support them in a coordination role, with hierarchical responsibility remaining within each subsidiary.
Your strategic mission
Turning customer relationships into value
Today, the group's subsidiaries rely on intermediaries to sell in Germany. You build the direct relationship infrastructure with German retail buyers, the piece the current setup is missing.
By opening these doors, you let subsidiaries reach customers they did not touch, shorten the chain, and improve their margin. In a decentralised group, your legitimacy comes from the concrete economic value you bring, not from hierarchical authority. That value is what makes you indispensable.
A future project
Hard discount
Hard discount (Aldi, Lidl) is an identified growth area for LDC in Germany. You open it up in a second phase, supported in time by a profile dedicated to this channel. Your initial mission covers grocery retail and foodservice; you then contribute, as the architect of the strategy, to defining the entry into discount and making it one of the drivers of growth.
The product scope you carry
Six families, 276 M€
FAMILY
REVENUE
ORIGIN
Waterfowl, duck and goose
100 M€
France, Hungary, Poland
Processed products
80 M€
ECF Germany, potential PL, HU, FR
Conventional chicken
40 M€
Poland, France
Premium chicken
24 M€
France
Turkey
18 M€
Group sourcing
French specialities
14 M€
France
A broad portfolio, from standard volume to premium speciality, which requires you to think in categories.
The profile we are looking for
An organiser with strategic vision
We are looking for an organiser with strategic vision and strong category management expertise. You start from market and consumer demand to improve the performance of the offer.
🐔 Manage two offices with distinct profiles, across two geographies.
🐔 Report to a French international leadership.
The quality that matters most
Your ability to build buy-in and to convince. In a decentralised group, this is what lets you carry autonomous subsidiaries behind a shared vision, relying on the value you create rather than on hierarchical authority.
English is essential, the working language of LDC International. French is a real asset. You are based in Germany.
Where you come from
You know German retail from the inside
Your experience was built in poultry, or more broadly in meat and charcuterie, or in fast-moving fresh and frozen products sold in volume to German retail. You have operated in an environment where private label and the direct relationship with buying centres are central. It is in these worlds that the competence this role requires is acquired.
The cultural challenge you take on
Bridging two managerial cultures
LDC operates with a Latin managerial culture: tolerance for ambiguity, quick adaptation, formalisation that comes after action. German teams, in turn, thrive on clear perimeters and readable org charts.
Your value is to bridge the two: you give German teams the structured framework they expect, while absorbing the flexibility inherent to the group. Our reference for success already exists internally, a German leader with a genuine Latin touch, successfully recruited at ECF.
The 2030 ambition
From 280 to around 500 M€
The German food retail market is buoyant: close to 280 billion euros, private labels at 36% market share, and discounters now accounting for nearly half of food spending. A dynamic environment that makes the ambition both realistic and stimulating.
The goal is to take Germany from 280 M€ to around 500 M€ by 2030, i.e. 220 M€ of growth, driven by two engines of comparable size.
Your mandate: the organic engine
Around 100 M€ of growth, generated through direct relationships with retail, the development of the subsidiaries in the German market, and the opening of the hard discount channel.
The second engine, of equivalent scale, is the group's external growth in Germany. It is led at group level and sits outside your mandate.
What this role offers you
A rare build mandate
🐔 The creation of a function: you design the commercial organisation for Germany within a 7-billion-euro group.
🐔 A build mandate in a buoyant market: around 100 M€ of organic growth to create and new channels to open.
🐔 The genuine autonomy of a decentralised European group, with decisions made close to the field.
🐔 A high-leverage role, whose value reads directly in the margin of the subsidiaries.
🐔 A rare opportunity in the German commercial leadership market.
Interested?
If this mandate speaks to your experience, let us talk. The conversation is direct and confidential.
Let's talk !