Company Overview 

Brookside Flavors & Ingredients LLC (“BFI” or the “Company”) is a leading manufacturer and developer of healthy and natural flavors and ingredients for the food and beverage industries. Our core mission is to partner with our customers to provide value-added solutions, creating high-quality, healthy, natural, and good-for-you products that drive consumer preference and demand.

BFI is well positioned for sustainable growth across broad category segments, supported by ownership with a strategy to acquire companies that complement our growth.  Our success comes from offering both sweet and savory expertise, market-leading customer service, high response rates, and a high-touch, hands-on commercial approach. We aim to be partners that our customers can firmly rely on, so that they have “No sleepless nights.” Our experienced R&D team has unique, enhanced technical capabilities that allow us to partner seamlessly with our customers. We recently completed major capital improvements to strengthen our capabilities and customer interactions at our locations in Addison, IL, and Branchburg, NJ. Our entrepreneurial culture, passion for serving customers with world-class expertise, and creative ideas make us unique. Recently, we acquired Sterling Food Flavorings, a manufacturer of savory flavoring, which complements our growth strategy by expanding our product portfolio and capabilities for current and future customers. Our continued growth will be driven by both organic initiatives and an active acquisition strategy.

BFI is privately owned by Brookside Equity Partners, a private investment company with roots dating back over 45 years and a capital base of family offices and other long-term investors. Brookside Equity Partners is known for its long-term approach to building successful businesses and partnering with leadership teams to achieve strategic growth objectives.

Position Overview:

The Account Executive is responsible for driving growth within an assigned territory by developing new profitable business, expanding existing customer relationships, and delivering value-added flavor solutions across both sweet and savory applications.  

This is a growth-oriented role, not just account maintenance. The incumbent is expected to open doors, and build long-term partnerships that fuel company success.  While working closely with cross-functional teams, including R&D, Applications, Operations, MIH-Marketing, and Customer Service; the incumbent shall bring BFI’s full savory and sweet capabilities to customers, ensuring seamless execution and exceptional service. The role requires a balance of strategic thinking, consultative selling, and disciplined commercial execution, including CRM management, forecasting, and reporting.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Drive Growth: with guidance develop and execute territory sales strategies to achieve ambitious growth targets.
• Customer Relationships: Serve as a trusted advisor to key customers, providing consultative support and value-based flavor solutions across sweet and savory applications.
• Business Development: Lead identification and pursuit of high-impact new business opportunities, leveraging deep industry knowledge and customer insights.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Proactively partner with R&D, Applications, MIH, Quality, Regulatory, Finance, and Operations to deliver seamless, innovative solutions and guide commercialization efforts.
• Industry Expertise: Maintain strong awareness of food & beverage trends, competitor activity, and market dynamics; influence internal strategy with these insights.
• Commercial Execution: Lead negotiations of contracts and agreements; ensure forecasting accuracy and pipeline health through disciplined CRM management.
• Reporting & Accountability: Provide timely and detailed reporting of sales activity, performance metrics, and account developments to commercial leadership.
• Market Presence: Represent BFI at trade shows, customer innovation sessions, and key industry events as a senior commercial ambassador.
• Mentorship: Contribute to the development of junior sales team members by sharing best practices and supporting knowledge transfer.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Sales, Marketing, Food Science, or a related field (preferred).
• 5 to 7 years of value based sales experience in the flavors, ingredients, or related food & beverage industry, with a proven track record of delivering revenue growth.
• Demonstrated success managing customer accounts, establish rapport and developing new business across both sweet and savory applications.
• Skilled in value-based selling techniques with the ability to communicate commercial and technical benefits to senior-level customer stakeholders.
• Strong negotiation skills with proven experience closing complex contracts and agreements.
• High proficiency in CRM tools (preferably Salesforce) and advanced Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.
• Desire deep knowledge of market trends, competitive dynamics, and customer needs in food and beverage.
• Strong organizational, analytical, and communication skills, with the ability to operate independently while collaborating cross-functionally.
• Ability to travel regularly (50%) to customer sites, HQ, trade shows, and industry events.

Cultural Fit:

• Strong voice for the BFI values and culture
• A “can-do” attitude with respect for co-workers, suppliers, and customers
• Ability to foster a positive and collaborative work environment across all levels and functions
• Strong focus on continuous improvement
• Strong work ethic, entrepreneurial attitude, and ownership mindset
• A collaborative partnership mentality combined with strategic and analytical rigor
• Humility, high integrity and impeccable ethics

BFI’s Values:

• Cultivate Wildly Excited Customers: The customer is always the top priority. Every day the team is hyper-focused on making our clients love BFI. Someone who embraces the values makes every decision, no matter how big or small, with the customer top of mind. They put themselves in the customers’ shoes and make their experience better. That way, the team creates Wildly Excited Fans of the customers and of each other. If customers aren’t wildly excited about Brookside’s people and their service and products, then the level of service expected was not achieved.
• We Do The Right Things: What do you do when no one else is looking? Brookside’s teams act with integrity and honesty and focus on putting themselves in the shoes of others with safety top of mind.
• Find a Better Way: A diverse culture of innovation and continuous improvement. Constantly seeking personal and professional growth to drive customer success.
• Build for Durability: Brookside wants to create something worth creating, that will endure the test of time and is respectful of the planet. They do this by relentlessly focusing on the customer’s success, creating high quality, Healthy, Natural, Good for You products, and planning for long-term growth and scale. They’re grounded in humility and driven by ambition and success for all their key stakeholders.
• Teams on a Mission: Above all, they’re a team. That means they show up for each other, act with empathy, and bring their authentic selves to work every day. Growing this company is not for personal gain, but for each other, with the mission in mind.
• Make Something Better – Today: Hungry; passionate, and in love with new challenges. You don’t hear a lot of “I don’t know how” or “I can’t” at BFI. When faced with a hurdle, the team jumps with creativity.

Compensation and Benefits:
BFI offers a very attractive compensation package, including a base salary, three variable bonus programs, 401k safe harbor match of 4% along with group insurance options for medical, dental, vision, life and disability.  

Disclaimer:
This job description is not intended, and should not be construed to be, an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills, efforts or working conditions associated with the job.  It is intended, however, to be an accurate reflection of those principal job elements essential for making decisions related to job performance, employee development and compensation.  As such, the incumbent may perform other duties and responsibilities as required.