Sales Executive, Retail

About the company

Join the Japanese subsidiary of a leading global dairy producer with a long-established heritage in cheese and other dairy products. The business combines international scale with local market expertise, bringing high-quality products to consumers across Japan.

The company values collaboration, accountability, initiative and strong relationships with customers and partners. Its international environment offers the opportunity to work closely with colleagues across sales, marketing, customer service, quality, sourcing and global teams. This is an attractive opportunity for a commercially minded professional to contribute to the growth of an established portfolio while helping identify new opportunities in the Japanese retail market.

What the job entails

As Sales Executive, Retail, you will drive sales performance and develop strong, long-term relationships with key distributors and customers. Reporting to the Japan General Manager, you will analyse monthly sales against budgets and targets, prepare clear performance reports and identify market opportunities, risks and trends.

You will work with the Trade Marketing Manager to ensure promotional plans are delivered effectively, optimise distribution across wholesalers and support the introduction of new products based on customer needs and market potential. The role also involves developing new business, creating annual sales plans with distributors and monitoring their progress.

Working closely with sourcing and logistics teams, you will help secure reliable product supply and efficient delivery to the Japanese market. You will also provide headquarters and international colleagues with valuable market intelligence, including sales trends, consumption patterns and competitor activity.

Key requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or higher.
• At least three years’ experience in food sales, ideally within retail or consumer goods.
• Business-level fluency in both Japanese and English.
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to interpret sales data and produce clear reports.
• Experience managing distributors, developing sales plans and building long-term commercial relationships.
• Ability to identify new business opportunities and support product development based on market insight.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and business document preparation.
• Strong problem-solving skills, tenacity and attention to detail.
• Excellent teamwork and communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across internal and international teams.
• A self-motivated, organised and proactive approach, including the ability to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines.
• Experience selling retail cheese or working for a foreign-affiliated food company would be advantageous.