General Manager - Food Distribution in Denver, Colorado at Food Distributor

This position is an On-Site role in the Northwest Denver Metro Area

Job Summary/Overview:

The employee with the role of General Manager - Food Distribution will be responsible for leading and managing a food distribution business unit as a full business owner. This role has direct accountability for profitable growth, cash discipline, collections, operating execution, customer and vendor relationships, employee leadership, policy compliance, and day-to-day business performance.

The General Manager is expected to actively manage the P&L, cash-flow implications of operating decisions, order-to-cash execution, purchasing discipline, inventory control, delivery execution, pricing, margin, collections, and customer service outcomes. This is a hands-on leadership role for a self-motivated driver of business results who moves with urgency, protects the company from financial leakage or being taken advantage of, and builds a culture of accountability, responsiveness, ownership, and execution.

This is not a passive oversight role. The General Manager must operate close to the business, understand whether the business is self-sustaining, and ensure that growth converts into gross margin, contribution profit, collected cash, and sustainable operating performance.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

Full Business Unit Ownership

• Operate the business unit as a hands-on general manager with end-to-end responsibility for commercial, financial, operational, and people outcomes.

• Own daily, weekly, monthly, and annual business performance, including revenue, gross margin, contribution profit, operating expenses, cash conversion, customer service, and execution quality.

• Establish clear goals, expectations, operating cadences, scorecards, and accountability rhythms across sales, operations, customer service, procurement, warehouse, logistics, and administration.

• Act as the primary leadership presence for the business unit, ensuring that decisions are made quickly, issues are escalated appropriately, and follow-through occurs without delay.

• Create a culture where employees understand ownership, urgency, customer service, financial discipline, and the need to protect company resources.

Financial, P&L, Cash Flow and Controls

• Take full ownership of the business unit P&L, including revenue growth, gross margin, contribution profit, labor cost, freight and delivery cost, waste, shrink, returns, credits, customer profitability, and controllable operating expenses.

• Review and understand financial statements, operating reports, cash receipts, customer balances, aging reports, vendor obligations, inventory investment, and working capital needs.

• Partner with corporate finance to prepare budgets, forecasts, variance explanations, performance reporting, and corrective action plans.

• Drive disciplined margin management through pricing controls, customer profitability review, vendor cost monitoring, freight and delivery economics, promotional decisions, and product mix optimization.

• Identify and eliminate financial leakage, including unapproved credits, excessive discounts, avoidable write-offs, uncollected invoices, inventory losses, delivery errors, billing mistakes, and process gaps.

• Ensure policies, approvals, reconciliations, documentation, and operating controls are in place and followed consistently.

Order-to-Cash, Collections and Customer Accountability

• Own the practical execution of the full order-to-cash process from order intake through fulfillment, invoicing, delivery, issue resolution, collections, and customer profitability review.

• Ensure orders are entered accurately, priced correctly, fulfilled timely, delivered properly, invoiced correctly, and collected in accordance with company expectations.

• Partner with finance, customer service, and sales to actively manage accounts receivable, past-due customers, credit holds, collection escalations, payment disputes, and customer risk.

• Hold customers accountable for payment terms, delivery requirements, minimum order expectations, product claims, credits, and commercial commitments.

• Prevent the company from being taken advantage of by customers, vendors, brokers, employees, or third parties through weak follow-up, poor documentation, informal exceptions, or lack of commercial discipline.

• Use collections, margin, returns, credits, and service data to make business decisions and prioritize corrective action.

Sales Growth, Customer Development and Market Execution

• Drive profitable sales growth through existing customer expansion, new customer acquisition, customer retention, product category development, and disciplined account management.

• Build strong relationships with key customers, brokers, vendors, distributors, and industry partners while maintaining appropriate commercial boundaries and company-first decision making.

• Support and enforce pricing, margin, credit, payment, customer onboarding, and service policies.

• Evaluate customer profitability and determine where to grow, renegotiate, restrict service, place customers on hold, or exit unprofitable relationships.

• Identify market opportunities, product categories, vendor partnerships, and customer segments that support profitable and sustainable growth.

• Represent the business professionally in customer meetings, vendor meetings, trade relationships, and industry events.

Operations, Warehouse, Inventory and Delivery Execution

• Oversee daily warehouse, purchasing, inventory, receiving, fulfillment, routing, delivery, food safety, and customer service execution.

• Ensure products are received, stored, rotated, picked, packed, delivered, and documented accurately and safely.

• Manage inventory discipline, including purchasing controls, demand planning, aging inventory, shrink, spoilage, shortages, stock-outs, returns, substitutions, and cycle count accuracy.

• Drive logistics and delivery performance, including route discipline, delivery cost, customer receiving requirements, missed deliveries, service failures, and issue resolution.

• Ensure compliance with food safety standards, facility requirements, product handling expectations, regulatory requirements, customer requirements, and company policies.

• Act quickly to resolve operational breakdowns and prevent recurring failures through root-cause analysis, documented process improvements, and clear ownership.

Vendor, Procurement and Supply Chain Management

• Manage vendor and supplier relationships to ensure product availability, competitive cost, dependable service, product quality, and appropriate commercial terms.

• Review vendor cost changes, payment expectations, minimums, lead times, quality issues, credits, claims, and performance concerns.

• Ensure procurement decisions are aligned with demand, margin goals, cash constraints, inventory capacity, customer commitments, and operational execution.

• Negotiate, escalate, or resolve vendor issues in a manner that protects the company and supports sustainable customer service.

• Maintain strong documentation of vendor agreements, pricing, credits, claims, returns, and service commitments.

People Leadership, Culture and Accountability

• Lead, develop, and hold accountable a cross-functional team across sales, operations, customer service, procurement, warehouse, delivery, and administration.

• Set clear role expectations, performance standards, communication norms, escalation paths, and ownership responsibilities.

• Recruit, onboard, train, coach, discipline, and develop employees in coordination with corporate leadership and HR.

• Create a performance-driven culture that values urgency, accountability, practical problem solving, customer responsiveness, financial stewardship, and operational excellence.

• Address performance issues quickly and directly, including lack of urgency, poor follow-through, weak controls, policy noncompliance, customer service breakdowns, or avoidable financial losses.

Corporate Collaboration and Reporting

• Serve as the key interface between the business unit and corporate leadership for performance reporting, operating priorities, financial review, strategic planning, and organizational alignment.

• Partner with Finance, HR, Legal, Compliance, Technology, Marketing, and Executive Leadership as needed to execute business objectives.

• Provide accurate, timely, and candid reporting on performance, risks, opportunities, staffing needs, customer issues, vendor issues, collections, and operating constraints.

• Escalate material business issues early, with facts, recommended actions, and ownership for resolution.

• Support enterprise initiatives, system improvements, process standardization, and policy implementation while maintaining business-unit execution discipline.

Job Requirements and Qualifications:

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in business, finance, operations, supply chain, food distribution, or related field preferred.

• Equivalent senior operating leadership experience may be considered where the candidate has demonstrated full business-unit ownership and financial accountability.

Experience:

• Minimum 7-10 years of progressive leadership experience in food distribution, wholesale distribution, supply chain, logistics, CPG, retail food, or a closely related operating environment.

• Demonstrated experience owning or materially managing a P&L, including revenue, margin, expense control, labor, working capital, collections, and profitability outcomes.

• Experience leading a small-to-mid-sized operating business, branch, market, or division where the leader had direct responsibility across sales, operations, customer service, procurement, finance coordination, and people leadership.

• Proven experience improving operating discipline, collections, customer profitability, inventory control, delivery performance, process execution, and accountability culture.

• Experience in perishable food distribution, wholesale distribution, or a closely related operating environment strongly preferred.

Other Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Strong business-owner mindset with the ability to manage both strategic priorities and daily operating details.

• High financial acumen, including ability to read and act on P&L reports, margin reports, customer profitability, AR aging, inventory reports, cash information, and operational KPIs.

• Strong command of order-to-cash execution, collections discipline, customer credit risk, pricing controls, and financial leakage prevention.

• Operational depth across warehouse, inventory, fulfillment, logistics, delivery, procurement, vendor management, customer service, and food safety compliance.

• Self-motivated, urgent, direct, and accountable leadership style; does not wait for others to identify or solve obvious business problems.

• Ability to protect the company's interests while maintaining constructive relationships with customers, vendors, brokers, employees, and corporate partners.

• Strong judgment, commercial discipline, negotiation capability, problem-solving ability, and willingness to make difficult decisions.

• Ability to build process, enforce policy, document expectations, and create repeatable operating rhythms in an entrepreneurial environment.

• Strong communication skills with ability to report clearly, escalate early, and present facts, risks, and recommendations to executive leadership.

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, ERP/order management systems, reporting tools, and business dashboards; strong Excel/reporting competency preferred.

Work Environment/Other Information:

Based in Denver, Colorado in the Northwest Denver Metro Area. Role requires regular on-site leadership presence in the warehouse and office environment. Some travel may be required for customer visits, vendor meetings, corporate meetings, and industry events. Position may require availability outside standard business hours to address urgent customer, delivery, facility, staffing, vendor, financial, or operational issues.

Compensation:

Position is incentive eligible based on business-unit performance, profitable growth, gross margin discipline, cash collection, operating execution, customer profitability, and overall business-unit results. Specific incentive terms are determined by corporate executive leadership and may be modified prospectively based on business needs.