General Manager, Premier Beehive

Lead the Future of an Iconic New Zealand Food Business

Premier Beehive is New Zealand’s leading bacon, ham and smallgoods business, serving retail, foodservice and distributor channels across the country. With a portfolio of trusted brands, approx. 340 employees, and a manufacturing operation in Carterton, Premier Beehive has built a reputation for quality, innovation and strong customer partnerships.

As part of Primo Foods and the global JBS Group, Premier Beehive combines the strength of iconic local brands and market leadership with the scale, expertise and resources of one of the world’s largest food companies.

The Opportunity

This is a unique opportunity to lead one of New Zealand’s most recognised food businesses. Reporting to the Chief Operating Offer, Primo Foods, the General Manager, Premier Beehive, is accountable for the overall performance, growth and long-term success of the New Zealand business. 

This highly visible executive leadership role carries responsibility for defining and executing business strategy, delivering sustainable commercial and financial performance, and fostering a high-performing organisation aligned with our JBS values and ambitions.

Based at one of our New Zealand sites, with regular travel across Carterton, Palmerston North, and Auckland, you will lead a diverse business across retail, foodservice and commercial, sales, finance, operations, supply chain, people, and safety functions. You will unite teams behind a common vision and shared objectives, drive execution excellence and strengthen the business’s market leadership position. You will also play a critical role in building strategic customer relationships, influencing industry partnerships and ensuring Premier Beehive continues to deliver outstanding outcomes for consumers, customers and shareholders.

This role combines strategic leadership, full P&L accountability, organisational leadership, and market development, requiring an accomplished executive who can balance strategic thinking with operational excellence, while creating a high- performance culture that delivers results.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide overall leadership of Premier Beehive, delivering sustainable growth, profitability and long-term business success.
• Develop and execute business strategy while driving commercial performance, customer engagement, and market expansion opportunities.
• Drive commercial performance through disciplined management of sales, pricing, revenue growth, margins and cost optimisation.
• Lead manufacturing, supply chain and operational excellence to ensure outstanding performance across safety, quality, service, and cost.
• Foster a high-performing, accountable and engaged culture while strengthening organisational capability and developing future leaders.
• Strengthen and maintain strategic relationships with customers, industry partners, distributors, and key stakeholders across Primo Foods and JBS.
• Ensure effective governance, risk management and regulatory compliance while maintaining alignment with broader organisational priorities.
• Champion continuous improvement and innovation to enhance business performance and future competitiveness.

About You

You are an experienced and commercially astute business leader with a proven track record of delivering commercial growth, operational excellence and sustainable financial performance.

You will bring:

• Proven success as a General Manager, Managing Director or equivalent senior leadership role.
• Extensive experience within FMCG, food manufacturing , consumer goods or a related industry.
• A strong understanding of customer dynamics, pricing and category strategy.
• Demonstrated success leading complex businesses with full P&L accountability.
• Strong commercial acumen across sales, customer strategy, category management, pricing and revenue growth.
• Experience leading manufacturing and supply chain operations in a customer-focused environment.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and influencing capability, with the credibility to engage effectively at Board, executive, customer and industry levels.
• A collaborative leadership style with a passion for developing people, building capability and creating high-performing teams.
• Strong leadership skills, with a passion for developing people, building capability, and fostering high-performance cultures.
• The resilience, agility and judgement required to lead in a dynamic and competitive market environment

Why Join Premier Beehive?

This is a rare opportunity to lead one of New Zealand's most recognised food businesses at a pivotal stage in its growth journey. Backed by Primo Foods and JBS, you will have the autonomy, scale and support to shape the future direction of the business while delivering lasting commercial and operational success. Most importantly, you will have the opportunity to make a lasting impact on an iconic brand, its people and its continued growth journey.

Apply Now

If you are a commercially astute and people-focused executive ready to lead an iconic New Zealand business, we want to hear from you. 

Applications Close: 17 July 2026