Director of Retail Sales

MEISTER CHEESE COMPANY LLC • Muscoda, WI

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

Meister Cheese is a fourth-generation, family-owned cheese and whey producer based in Muscoda, Wisconsin. Since 1916, we have built our reputation on award-winning cheese, strong customer relationships, responsible growth, and a commitment to doing business with integrity. Today, Meister Cheese is entering an exciting phase of growth, and we are looking for a driven retail sales leader to help expand our presence across grocery, club, specialty, and strategic retail channels. This is a role for someone who wants to take ownership, build meaningful customer partnerships, grow ACV and distribution, and help shape the future of Meister Cheese at retail.

The Director of Retail Sales will lead and grow Meister Cheese’s retail business across grocery, club, specialty, distributor, and strategic retail accounts. This person will be responsible for developing retail growth strategies, strengthening current customer relationships, identifying new opportunities, improving retail execution, and helping build the structure needed to support long-term growth. The right candidate will be both strategic and hands-on. They will understand retail sales metrics, know how to build a business case, manage customer relationships, work through deductions and chargebacks, and partner internally to turn retail opportunities into profitable, sustainable growth.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in retail sales, CPG, dairy, food manufacturing, grocery, specialty food, or related industries
• Proven experience managing retail accounts, customer relationships, pricing, negotiation, forecasting, and promotional planning
• Experience working with grocery retailers, club stores, distributors, brokers, or specialty retail accounts
• Strong understanding of retail metrics including ACV, distribution, velocity, trade spend, deductions, chargebacks, and promotional performance
• Ability to develop and execute growth strategies in a fast-paced, evolving environment
• Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate across operations, quality, finance, customer service, marketing, and leadership
• Comfort using CRM systems, forecasting tools, and sales reporting processes
• Ability to travel 30–40% of the time, with potential to evolve as the segment grows

Nice To Haves

• Experience managing deductions, distributor claims, trade spend, or promotional programs strongly preferred
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Sales, or a related field preferred

Responsibilities

• Lead retail sales strategy across grocery, club, specialty, distributor, and strategic retail channels
• Grow distribution, ACV, velocity, and overall retail presence for Meister Cheese products
• Build and strengthen relationships with retail buyers, distributors, brokers, and key customer partners
• Identify new retail opportunities and develop plans to expand Meister Cheese’s branded and private label presence
• Manage pricing, promotional planning, trade spend, deductions, chargebacks, and customer profitability
• Partner with the VP of Sales and internal teams to align retail growth with production capabilities, forecasting, inventory, quality, marketing, and profitability goals
• Improve retail execution through better planning, reporting, account ownership, and follow-through
• Bring customer insights, market trends, and growth opportunities back to the organization in a clear and actionable way
• Help establish scalable retail sales processes, account assignments, reporting tools, and future team structure

Benefits

• Health insurance at hire
• Up to 8% matched 401(k)
• Dental, vision, life, and disability coverage
• Strong ancillary coverage options
• Paid holidays and vacation
• A caring, respectful, and collaborative work environment built on decades of trust
• The opportunity to make a visible impact in a growing, family-owned company

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager