Category Manager

Overview

Home. There’s no place like it. And there’s no feeling like helping people create the joy of feeling truly at home.

At Dunelm, that’s what we do.

We’re the UK\’s number one choice for homewares because we make home life lovelier for our customers. And the caring and supportive culture we\’ve created makes this a place you\’ll feel right at home too.

The Commercial Category Manager is responsible for the management and strategic direction of a product category across multiple channels, ensuring a seamless and effective in-store and online shopping experience for our customers.

Through developing products, ranges and trading plans, this role puts our customers first throughout their category propositions, always starting with themto create the best multichannel customer experience. Leading our Buying and Merchandising teams and working closely with our suppliers to ensure our products are available for our customers, in the right place, at the right time. The role is critical in developing the customer proposition for the category, whilst collaborating with squad members and key stakeholders from across the business.

What you\’ll be doing

Strategic Category Management:

• Be responsible for creating and executing the category strategy, aligning with the company’s overall business goals.
• Manage long-term plans for the category, aligning the current and ‘next season’ decisions with broader business objectives and longer-term ambitions. Collaborating with Design, Sustainability and Quality teams on direction.
• Bring curiosity to the role, whilst understanding the market, competitors, and suppliers, dedicating a significant portion of time to external market-facing activities.
• Implement continuous improvement initiatives to enhance the sustainability of the product category.
• Story tells with data, present findings, and strategic insights to stakeholders, providing clear and actionable recommendation.
• Incorporate customer insights into category strategies and product offerings.
• Drive customer engagement initiatives to build category loyalty and satisfaction.
• Define category KPIs and track performance against targets.
• Ensure accountability for both short-term and long-term goals within the category.

Commercial Management

• Develop and manage the category budget, including sales forecasts, margin targets, and cost control measures.
• Monitor financial performance and implement corrective actions as needed to achieve financial goals.
• Creating value and optimising costs, maintaining a strong operational grip and deploying the right resources to achieve productivity.
• Work closely with Commercial Finance Partners, using their support and expertise when making decisions from data.
• Utilise data-driven insights to continually improve category performance and anticipate future trends.
• Use sales data to identify growth opportunities and optimise category performance.

Product Ownership and Customer Planning:

• Take full ownership of the product category across all channels, ensuring a cohesive and effective strategy for stores and online.
• Being passionate about product, the product development process and ensuring that the buying and merchandising teams are staying ahead of the competition through our product selection, design & innovation process.
• Make informed range decisions to enhance customer experience, driving choice and delivering sales growth.
• Encourage and facilitate the development of sustainable products, through sustainable materials and processes in product design and manufacturing, to deliver against our stated sustainability objectives.
• Develop and implement go-to-market plans, including promotional strategies and campaigns, across all channels, working closely with customer, retail and online teams.
• Lead teams to deliver on the business-critical path deadlines
• Ensure a consistent and effective customer experience across all channels, visiting stores to continually look for ways to improve the customer experience.

Supplier Management & Development:

• Build and maintain strong commercial relationships with key suppliers.
• Negotiate contracts, pricing, and trading to maximise trading results to deliver category budgets.
• Regularly evaluate supplier performance, develop and strengthen relationships and manage supplier development programs.
• Create and implement supplier routes and strategies including Direct-to-Store (DTS) and Direct-to-Customer (DTC) models.
• Identify and partner with suppliers that follow sustainable practices, whilst educating and supporting best practice across our existing supply base.
• Ensure that materials and products are sourced from environmentally responsible sources, to deliver our sustainability objectives.

Merchandising Capability and Stock Management:

• Develop strategies to improve product availability and maximise cash utilisation.
• Ensure optimal stock availability and manage inventory levels, costs and volumes to meet customer demand and deliver sales and profit targets.
• Collaborate with the supply chain team to optimise warehouse efficiencies, reduce stock holding and drive productivity through our supply chain.
• Collaborate with Store, Online and Customer teams to maximise stock availability across the proposition to deliver sales and stock budgets.

Leadership, Talent and Capability Building:

• Exhibit strong leadership skills in managing both internal and external stakeholders.
• Collaborate with key stakeholders to drive category success and to develop forward-thinking strategies that shape the future of the category.
• Create a truly diverse team to enrich thinking and enhance performance.
• Influence, inspire and engage teams through compelling language and storytelling.
• Empower team members to take responsibility for how they achieve results.
• Role model objective setting, whilst setting stretching goals with clear outcomes across the team
• Identify and manage under-performance and capability gaps, providing challenge and support to develop a high-performance team culture.
• Growing the talent and capability needed now and, in the future, creating great learning experiences for the team and supporting their professional development.

What we\’ll look for in you

• Strategic Category Management: Proven experience in creating and executing category strategies aligned with overall business goals, with a focus on customer experience across multiple channels (in-store and online).
• Financial Acumen: Strong commercial awareness, with experience in budget management, sales forecasting, margin targets, and cost control to drive profitability and growth.
• Data-Driven Decision-Making Ability to analyse sales and market data to identify trends, make informed decisions, and present clear strategic insights and actionable recommendations to stakeholders.
• Supplier Management & Negotiation: Experience in building and maintaining strong relationships with suppliers, negotiating contracts and pricing, and developing supplier performance and sustainability initiatives.
• Product Development & Merchandising: Passion for product development, with a proven track record of leading buying and merchandising teams to innovate, stay ahead of competitors, and deliver a cohesive product range
• Customer-Focused Planning: Strong understanding of customer insights, with experience in developing and implementing go-to-market strategies, promotional campaigns, and enhancing the customer experience across all channels.
• Inventory & Stock Management: Expertise in inventory management, ensuring optimal stock availability, managing costs, and collaborating with supply chain teams to drive efficiency and meet sales targets.
• Leadership & Team Development: Proven leadership skills, with experience in managing, inspiring, and developing high-performing, diverse teams, and addressing performance gaps to achieve business objectives.
• Collaborative & Cross-Functional Working: Strong collaboration skills, working effectively with internal and external stakeholders (Design, Finance, Supply Chain, etc.) to align category plans with overall business goals.

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