Regional Sales Manager – South Central Region

Ruiz Foods has been family owned since 1964, is one of the largest Hispanic-owned companies in the country and is the proud maker of two #1 brands: El Monterey frozen Mexican food and Tornados roller grill taquitos in grocery stores and convenience stores across the US and Canada.

Location: South Central Region preferred; remote candidates will be considered.

The Opportunity

Are you looking for career development opportunities in an exciting company that cares about its team members and consumers alike? Come join our team and help us continue our industry-leading track record of growth, quality, and delicious food!

As Regional Sales Manager, you will own customer strategy and profitable growth across key South Central retail accounts, including HEB, WinCo, Brookshire Brothers, Save A Lot, and Schnucks*. You will combine strategic selling, retail analytics, broker leadership, forecasting, trade management, and cross-functional partnership to expand distribution, strengthen customer relationships, and deliver sustainable account performance.

What You Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, or a related field; equivalent experience may be considered.
• 7+ years of CPG sales, retail account management, broker management, or category management experience.
• Supplier-side experience managing regional grocery, value, or multi-store retail customers.
• Demonstrated ability to manage broker partners, trade budgets, forecasts, customer P&Ls, and account-level financial objectives.
• Working knowledge of POS and syndicated data, sales reporting, forecasting, trade management, retailer portals, CRM platforms, Power BI, and advanced Excel.
• Strong communication, presentation, negotiation, analytical, prioritization, and problem-solving skills.

What You’ll Do

Lead Customer Strategy and Growth

• Serve as the primary sales contact for assigned South Central customers, including HEB, WinCo, Brookshire Brothers, Save A Lot, and Schnucks.
• Build customer plans that accelerate sales, distribution, promotional execution, and profitability.
• Lead customer meetings, business reviews, line reviews, annual planning, and disciplined follow-up.
• Negotiate programs, promotional calendars, pricing recommendations, and planning commitments within company guidelines.

Turn Insights into Action

• Use POS, shipment, syndicated, and internal data to identify risks, opportunities, and clear actions.
• Translate category trends, pricing, distribution, velocity, and competitive activity into persuasive customer recommendations.
• Create high-impact materials for line reviews, performance recaps, innovation discussions, and business planning.
• Partner across Marketing, Category, Revenue Growth Management, Finance, Supply Chain, Demand Planning, and Customer Service to align customer strategies, pricing, launches, and service expectations.
• Support new-item commercialization from setup and sell-in through launch tracking and post-launch analysis.

Own Forecasting and Trade Performance

• Develop accurate account-level forecasts with Demand Planning, Finance, Supply Chain, and Customer Service.
• Manage promotional forecasting, post-event analysis, trade recommendations, deductions, accruals, margin objectives, and customer P&Ls.
• Communicate inventory, service-level, pricing, and supply risks with practical recommendations.
• Maintain scorecards, forecast updates, risk trackers, trade summaries, and leadership updates against business objectives.

Lead Broker and Retail Execution

• Set broker priorities, expectations, timelines, and performance measures.
• Lead planning calls, customer updates, and market execution reviews.
• Hold partners accountable for customer follow-through, new-item submissions, distribution opportunities, market feedback, and issue resolution.
• Drive retail execution across shelf conditions, void closures, display compliance, competitive checks, and escalation of market-level opportunities.

Preferred Experience

• Frozen food, grocery, or broader CPG category experience.
• Experience supporting HEB, WinCo, Brookshire Brothers, Save A Lot, Schnucks, or comparable retail customers.
• Background in customer planning, line reviews, broker execution, and business intelligence tools.
• Omnichannel or e-commerce experience, including digital shelf content, online item setup, ratings and reviews, and pickup or delivery merchandising programs.

How Success Is Measured

Your leadership will directly influence customer strategy, broker execution, distribution growth, forecast accuracy, and regional business performance. Key measures may include net sales growth, gross margin performance, distribution gains, velocity improvement, trade ROI, deduction management, new-item acceptance, retail execution, and customer relationship strength.

Originally posted on Himalayas