VP Commercial, Bonide

Vice President, Commercial

Job Description

Reports To: General Manager/CEO

Direct Reports: Strategic Account Director, Director of Field Sales, E-Commerce National Account Manager

Indirect Reports: Various Sales Managers and Representatives

Location: Oriskany, NY (Onsite)

ABOUT Bonide

With a legacy of trust dating back to 1926, Bonide has evolved into a global force in the gardening industry as a proud member of the Syngenta Group. This partnership has bestowed upon our family business the invaluable advantage of a worldwide presence and extensive resources, enabling us to serve gardeners across the globe with exceptional pest control solutions for generations to come. At our Oriskany, NY facility, a dedicated team of over 200 professionals passionately produces our diverse portfolio of synthetic and Organic Gardening Products.

Our commitment to meeting every gardener's needs is unwavering, and we offer a comprehensive range of weed, insect, disease, and animal controls in various formulations and applications. You can find our premium products at national, regional, and local home centers, hardware stores, mass merchants, and garden centers throughout America. Bonide stands tall as a recognized and respected industry leader, reflecting the trust and admiration we have earned from gardening enthusiasts across the country!

Role Summary

The Vice President, Commercial is responsible for architecting, institutionalizing, and governing Bonide’s end‑to‑end commercial operating model. This role is accountable for building a resilient, profitable, and strategically balanced channel portfolio that enables durable growth, margin protection, and sustained negotiating leverage.

This position is not a volume‑maximization role. It is a portfolio leadership role requiring enterprise perspective, economic discipline, and system‑based execution. The VP, Commercial will design and oversee Bonide’s Distributor, Mass / Home Improvement, and E‑commerce channels to ensure no single channel, customer, or negotiation posture dictates the enterprise’s long‑term performance.

Key Accountabilities And Responsibilities

Channel Portfolio Strategy & Governance

• Define and operationalize the strategic role and economic intent of each commercial channel:
• Distributor: Margin stability, brand depth, geographic reach, and negotiating buffer
• Mass / Home Improvement: Scale, national presence, and velocity
• E‑commerce: Search capture, data intelligence, and incremental consumer reach
• Establish and enforce channel mix guardrails, concentration thresholds, and customer exposure limits
• Align commercial resources and investments to portfolio priorities
• Ensure balanced leverage across channels and customers to protect enterprise optionality
  

Revenue Growth management & Pricing Discipline

• Design and implement formal pricing governance and approval processes
• Establish and monitor margin guardrails by channel and customer
• Rationalize pack‑price architecture across the portfolio
• Implement trade spend transparency and promotion ROI measurement
• Embed elasticity analysis and competitive response logic into pricing decisions
• Transition pricing behavior from negotiation‑driven to architecture‑driven discipline
  
  

Distributor Growth Activation

• Develop and execute a structured distributor growth and penetration strategy
• Protect and expand distributor margin contribution
• Implement distributor performance scorecards and structured improvement plans
• Align field sales structure and incentives to distributor expansion objectives
• Reposition distributors as strategic growth partners rather than legacy sales channels
  
  

Commercial Operating Model Institutionalization

• Standardize annual account planning across all key customers
• Implement structured Joint Business Planning (JBP) for priority accounts
• Improve forecast accuracy and reduce operational volatility
• Reduce reactive decision‑making through disciplined commercial processes
• Ensure commercial execution is system‑based, not personality‑based
  
  

Cross Functional Commercial Integration

• Partner closely with Marketing and Innovation on:
• Brand strategy alignment
• Launch readiness and commercialization
• Pack‑price architecture
• Collaborate with Finance on:
• Margin governance
• Trade spend management
• Channel and customer profitability transparency
• Integrate with Operations through S&OP to improve forecast reliability and supply alignment
  

Talent & Organizational Development

• Define and deploy a modern commercial capability model encompassing:
• Data fluency and analytics
• Margin and pricing discipline
• Portfolio and enterprise thinking
• Negotiation and leverage strategy
• Upgrade talent and capabilities where required
• Build bench strength and succession plans
• Evolve the culture from heroic, reactive operators to disciplined commercial leaders
• Additional duties as assigned
  

Critical Experiences For Success

To be successful in this role you will have/be:

• 15 years of progressive commercial leadership experience
• Demonstrated success managing multi‑channel portfolios (Distributor, Mass, E‑commerce)
• Proven experience implementing revenue growth management and pricing governance frameworks
• Successful negotiation experience with large national retail customers
• Background in branded CPG, home improvement, lawn & garden, or adjacent categories preferred
• Enterprise‑level portfolio thinker
• Strong financial acumen with deep understanding of margin architecture and cost‑to‑serve economics
• Confident negotiator who protects long‑term leverage and enterprise value
• Highly data‑driven decision maker
• Strong cross‑functional collaborator
• Builder of scalable teams and enduring capabilities
• Approximately 30–40%, primarily domestically, to support key customer engagement, distributor partnership development, and field leadership.
  
  

Education

• A Bachelor’s degree (Business Administration, Marketing, Finance, Economics, Supply Chain Management, or related discipline)
• MBA/master’s degree a plus
• Must have fluency in Written and Verbal English
  
  

FUNCTIONAL EXCELLENCE

• Calm and composed under pressure
• Disciplined, deliberate, and economically rigorous
• Comfortable making and enforcing strategic trade‑offs
• Balances growth ambition with profitability and long‑term value creation
• Process focused with an understanding of end to end business processes and their financial impacts
• Ability to identify root cause issues and develop plans to resolve
• Skilled at organizing and prioritizing multiple projects and resource constraints to optimize results
  
  

An essential element of Bonide culture is our commitment to diversity. Bonide is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. We consider applicants, and make all employment decisions, without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, marital or veteran status, or any other legally protected status. We are committed to recruiting and retaining the best talent in our industry.