Chief Commercial Officer

Kramp is one of the hidden gems of the Dutch business world. Due to their B2B focus, consumers are often unfamiliar with Kramp and their incredible success. The decisiveness and entrepreneurship of this family business has ensured their position as the market leader in Europe. And because of early digitalization, Kramp is getting ahead of their competitors a little more every day. The winner takes it all.

An incredible growth story

Kramp is the leading supplier of parts for the agricultural sector. Based in Varsseveld in the East of the Netherlands, present throughout Europe.

The company offers an impressive range of 500,000 SKUs. If a tractor or other equipment breaks down, Kramp delivers the right replacement parts the next morning before 8 AM. This ensures the agricultural mechanization business and its customers, the farmers, can always continue their work. Nearly all of Europe is covered from 11 distribution centres.

With over 3,000 employees, Kramp will generate a turnover of 940 million Euros in 2020. Kramp started the process of digitizing a large part of their operation at an early stage. As a result of their leading online position the company is currently accelerating its growth.

In e-commerce, the old adage rings true: the winner takes it all. A larger assortment means more customers. Higher volumes lead to more competitive pricing. Higher turnover means more room for investment. Which in turn leads to a technological edge that is difficult for other players to overcome. This has generated an upward spiral of strong organic growth, completed by an international buy & build strategy which even further strengthens Kramp’s position as the market leader in Europe.

The value chain is changing
Kramp is the dominant channel in the value chain from manufacturers to dealers to farmers. As transactions increasingly move online, the role of the dealers becomes more and more service-oriented and value-adding. Kramp is an important enabler for the dealers in their transformation. Also, the direct relationship with farmers becomes crucial.

Account management is adapting
The relationship between Kramp and the dealers becomes more and more based on co-creating value as the nature of account management changes. The process of order intake and stock management is increasingly automated by means of ERP integrations and other digitalisation. Helping the dealers in their process of transformation is where Kramp fullfills its mission as industry leader.

Kramp is evolving
It was many years ago that Kramp took the lead in the process of digital transformation. Since then, the company has evolved from a traditional wholesaler into an innovative e-commerce multinational connecting all partners in the end-to-end value chain. And still it is founded on the same tight and personal relationships.

The playing field is expanding
Kramp has identified several growth opportunities in its strategy 2025, one of which is the expansion into adjancent spare parts markets and industries.

The CCO is at the heart of the transformation
The CCO takes the lead in striking the right balance between on-line business and off-line relationships. Managing the synergy between e-commerce and account management. This is a highly impactful role as board member that stretches far beyond the commercial boundaries of sales management.

Vacancy: Chief Commercial Officer

The board at Kramp consists of 6 people. The CCO is responsible for Account Management, Sales Development, Branding, Product Management and Procurement. This scope covers roughly 1/3 of the people working at Kramp.

Purpose of the role
The CCO executes the digital transformation of the sales and service organisation in the coming years, working with the COO and CDO in an essential triangle around the customer, aligning commerce with operations and digital.

Success factors:
The top prorities and as such success factors in this role are currently:

1. Growth
   Growing the business and expanding it to adjacent (after sales) markets.
2. Transformation
   Co-leading the digital transformation, which extends beyond e-commerce but includes the implementation of data-driven decision making in addition to intuitive entrepreneurship.
3. Customer value
   Creating an end-to-end value stream for Kramp’s customers. The CCO manages all partners in the value chain, from suppliers via strategic procurement and product management to partners to customers. And all of this needs to be farmer-centric, because Kramp exists to enhance the life and business of the farmer.
4. Network
   The CCO is a strong connector who thrives on building personal relationships with customers,  suppliers,  partners and  international stakeholders.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the CCO can be described by the scope of the 7 direct reports.

1. Region Commercial Director (3x)
   Together, the 3 Region Commercial Directors are responsible for 24 countries. With these Directors, there is a close collaboration to monitor performance and resolve issues in the commercial  operation.This is the heart of the business, where Kramp meets its customers on a daily basis. This is also the heart of the digital transformation, renewing the way of working of account management into a more data-driven process. There is a split reporting line from the country organizations. The Commercial Director reports to the CCO, the Operations Director in each country organization to the COO.
2. Director Sales Development (vacancy)
   The Director Sales Development is responsible for continuous and long-term strategic sales development, developing new client segments, developing partnerships with OEMs, fostering a strong retail channel, optimising the OEM business, creating innovative value-adding Business Solutions and leading an effective Internal Sales Academy.
3. Director Product Management (vacancy)
   The goal of the Director Product Management is to achieve maximum return and profitability for Kramp’s extensive product range. Together with the CCO, they develop a strategy that will provide a profitable and competitive assortment by developing a strong product lifecycle, best-practice product management and optimisation.
4. Director Marketing
   Marketing within the CCO domain covers the Kramp brand, campaigns and sales support. Marketing is also reponsible for the own brand product line, accounting for 10% of total revenue.
5. Director Procurement
   Together with the Director Procurement, the CCO is responsible for Strategic Supplier Management, strengthening and professionalising the relationship with suppliers. Procurement takes care of the commercial negotations so that Operational Purchase (reporting to the COO) can order the needed goods at the right time.

Interested?

Kramp works with Top of Minds to fill this vacancy.
To express your interest, contact Janko Klaeijsen at janko.klaeijsen@topofminds.com.