General Management Sr. Director - Cape Town HQ

Overview

• Pepsi
• Co products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world.
• Pepsi
• Co generated more than $93 billion in net revenue in 2025, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods portfolio that includes Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, and Soda
• Stream.
• Pepsi
• Co's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including many iconic brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated.

Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in Beverages and Convenient Foods by Winning with PepsiCo Positive (pep+). pep+ is our strategic end-to-end transformation that puts sustainability and human capital at the centre of how we will create value and growth by operating within planetary boundaries and inspiring positive change for planet and people. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com.

Responsibilities

This position is central to designing and implementing the overall strategy for the bakery business. The GM oversees every aspect of the operation, from production to distribution and sales, with direct management of the processes involved in making, moving, and selling our short shelf-life products.

These goods require daily deliveries to both modern and traditional trade channels, ensuring freshness and quality for our customers.

The business operates across South Africa with 13 manufacturing facilities, each contributing to our nationwide reach. The GM’s leadership is crucial in coordinating these sites to maintain efficiency and uphold our standards.

• Lead the development of the Bakery Category strategy, to drive portfolio topline growth and meet medium to long-term growth targets (NR, Share, NOPBT, Margin %)
• Translate the business strategy and objectives into business plans, secure alignment, and work intimately with cross-functional partners to deliver on targets.
• Drive strategy and execution by directing, engaging and inspiring multi-disciplinary team across functions (Marketing, Sales, R&D, Integrated Supply Chain, HR and Finance), fostering a high level of cross-functional integration
• Manage and monitor KPIs (incl. budget management), working with cross-functional partners to identify corrective actions as required
• Build brands, directing the marketing team to ensure products have fit for purpose, insight-driven marketing plans (incl. marketing mix, pricing strategy, budget allocations).
• Oversee go-to-market priority setting for General Trade and Modern Trade (incl. sales budgets) to meet category objectives, partnering closely with the Commercial function to execute the Channel plans and drive its execution.
• Drive innovation working with R&D and ensuring the marketing team identify the big bets that will cater to the needs of our consumers.
• Ensure alignment from GP through Supply Chain across Commercial functions to enable smooth business flow and focus
• Drive continuous improvement to keep the business competitive and drive effectiveness across the value chain. Deliver OTIF > 95% consistently
• Champion cross functional teams to eliminate inefficiencies, reduce End to End Waste, reduce costs, increase productivity
• Governance Control & legal compliance. Ensure total integrity in all company transactions, particularly in financial reporting / records
• Own the key top-2-top relationships with customers across the brands.
• Lead the consolidation of cross-functional inputs to track and monitor cross-cutting processes (e.g. NPD, IBP and S&OP) and delivery against business targets.
• Drive sustainable and competitive sourcing across the value chain of the business.
• Lead business continuity and risk initiatives
• Lead Footprint transformation projects to drive optimization
• Champion of the SA Culture blueprint and culture transformation.
• Build and develop top talent for the business by coaching/mentoring others and providing skills development opportunities.
• Entrench Bakery Leadership to enable results

Qualifications

• A post graduate degree in business or a related field is typically required
• Minimum of 10 years’ relevant experience.
• Minimum of 5 years in a senior leadership position
• Proficient in MS Office and SAP or equivalent ERP system
• Collaboration
• Strategic focus
• Project management
• Strong interpersonal and communications skills
• Knowledge of the market

“PepsiCo is an Equal Opportunity Employer in line with the Employment Equity Act"