We’ve kicked-off the search for a Wholesale and Training Manager to join the Crew here at Craft House.
If you love coffee, have worked in coffee, and can talk about coffee, then we’d love to hear from you. We are looking for someone who is committed, open-minded, engaging, and loves rolling their sleeves up.
Craft House Coffee is a Sussex-based, independent, specialty coffee company. We’re built on a foundation of ‘no compromise for absolute quality' - it impacts everything we do.
From our farmstead roastery, we source, roast, and hand-pack ethically traded and relationship coffees for wholesale customers worldwide, supplying to like-minded, quality-hooked independents and multi-site operators, including cafes, restaurants, and high-end retail. We also drop our range of coffees to homes around the world through our online shop and subscription service.
Our restless approach to ‘getting it right’ has seen us grow impressively since 2015 and we are now looking for an experienced, dynamic Customer Manager to join our crew, take ownership of our customer-facing activity and to get stuck in, to be frank.
The role will be responsible for account management and acquiring new customers, predominantly in the South of England, but also across the UK. The focus will be on opening high-quality wholesale accounts, both independent and multi-sites, as well as raising Craft House Coffee’s profile with the tribe of specialty coffee lovers up and down the UK.
Keeping customers is what it’s about. We take it personally. You will support our customer base with barista training and sound advice to ensure we are constantly driving quality and consistency, without exception. Your natural ability to build rapport and help businesses grow organically will be baked in.
Applying your strong coffee background to both product and equipment, you can host stellar tastings for new or existing customers and take them on a journey from design to implementation, including coffee selection, equipment recommendations, coffee bar design, barista workflows, and bespoke training plans. The full lot, the whole shebang.
A key working relationship exists with our external techies, to diagnose minor issues, whilst also ensuring equipment is being fully maintained by customers. At times you will be the main point of contact and know when best to triage, grip it, or pass it on to the experts. You will also work tightly with our huddle of suppliers to ensure our product ranges are always on form.
The Southern region is our heartland, sandwiched between The South Downs and The Weald, and a working knowledge is important, with a willingness to travel - from coastline to skyline - to meet with customers and do your stuff. You must be wonderfully customer-obsessed, one to take an opportunity, and not be afraid to go beyond.
The Highlights:
- Manage all customer facing activity, with account acquisition, maintenance, and retention at the heart.
- Build lasting personal relationships with our customers and deliver outstanding customer service.
- Train, educate and support customers daily, delivering barista courses and operational expertise both on and off site.
- Analyse and report data using our CRM system, developing sales strategies to maximise new opportunities and get in front of businesses.
- Support the consumer targeted activity both on/offline working with the marketing team.
- Liaise and leverage our supplier relationships to ensure we are taking advantage of all opportunities.
- Stay in-tune with developments and trends in the specialty coffee world, and amongst our competitors.
- Develop new relationships with coffee associations, bodies, and represent Craft House Coffee as appropriate.
- Support with future coffee selections and range development.
- Attend trade events/ exhibitions as required.
- Work alongside the roastery, product, logistics and marketing team to deliver a five-star customer experience.
About You
The things that really matter:
- Proven experience of working in specialty coffee with a natural talent for creating connections.
- A natural ability to make all customers feel like they are winning.
- A flare for leading the conversation, being the centre of attention, and putting people at ease, with solid interpersonal skills, including the ability to influence a wide range of decision makers.
- An ability to self-manage, work independently, and stay on track.
- Must be into the detail and not fear spreadsheets/ numbers.
A specific set of skills:
- Educated to degree level in business/ hospitality, or have an equivalent level of experience (5+ years).
- Proven experience within the coffee industry, including time spent in hospitality/ operations.
- Demonstrable experience of delivering against objectives and targets.
- Fantastic organisational skills.
- Self-led with a natural ability to manage and prioritise workloads.
- Extremely comfortable communicating in person, networking, training, and presenting to people in groups.
- Good working knowledge of all Microsoft Office packages, and an ability to manage CRM/ web chat systems. An understanding of Pipedrive CMS is beneficial but not essential.
- Basic espresso machine maintenance and asset management capability.
- Full UK clean driving licence
How you go about it:
- Must love coffee, it’s what it’s all about.
- Self-motivated with an aptitude to drive your own activity to deliver results.
- Excellent verbal and communication skills including the ability to handle a broad customer base, whilst presenting an energetic, proactive, and supportive mindset.
- A continuous drive to keep improving and pushing boundaries.
- Confidence in your own ability
- Comfortable with the idea of travel throughout a working week, with some weekend work as necessary.
The package:
- Up to £32k
- Company car
- Statutory pension
- 28 days holiday (including Bank Holidays)
- Hybrid role: Roastery + Home + Road