Senior Category Manager

Senior Category Manager

Location: Newcastle upon Tyne (Hybrid)

Salary: Competitive Dependent on Experience

Permanent Opportunity, Full-Time Hours

We have an amazing opportunity for a UK Senior Category Manager to join our team at our Global HQ in Newcastle upon Tyne!

As the UK Senior Category Manager you will be responsible for leading our regional category strategy & commercial strategy plan into action. This role requires a team player with great collaboration, with strong analytical skills, who can strategise the plans for our product categories, and lead the team on how to implement them. Management of the category performance & P&L will be key as well as the ability to influence others & bring key stakeholders with you on Category Strategy.

You will take responsibility for the categories where the UK regions leads, and has the larger revenue, and therefore have greater influence over the global strategy for those categories.

What will you be doing:

• Identify the key category insights: utilise relevant market, consumer, and performance insights to define the regional category strategy
• Define the UK category growth strategy: own the strategic direction for assigned categories, driving commercial agendas around the 5P’s to meet targets
• Define the annual 5P’s plan by channel: Working with the Global Category teams share regional insights to define regional category strategies on product, price, promotion, place, presentation; provide a clear plan by channel and lead the regional teams (Regional Marketing, Retailer Category Manager and sales teams) on implementation through monthly meeting reviews.
• Review category P&L: Performance should be tracked monthly using market data, sell out data, and sell in data, P&L review.
• Promotions; Recommend the regional Promotional plan by category by channel/customer to the sales team, managing varying Retailer Promotional strategies & track YOY performance of promotions
• Pricing : Own the Regional pricing recommendations including any CPI recommendations, analysis & tracking of CPI and ASP changes in the market place
• Manage the regional product portfolio: Create and manage the regional assortment plan by channel whilst achieving given commercial and supply chain KPI’s
• Determine the regional NPD plans: Identify innovation / product gaps in market using data and drive NPD initiatives through the global Category teams for the regional channel requirements. Ensure Channel differentiation for NPD. Input commercials into NPD business cases where required
• Create the regional sell in story: Work with the regional Category Manager to develop compelling stories for our product & category plans
• Competitor Insights:Stay ahead of competition in the market, identifying threats and Must Win Battles, leading war game workshops when necessary, bringing competitor insights to the relevant forums for decision making/information/ABP

What skills, experiences and behaviours you’ll need to ace this job:

• Experience: Significant experience in a Category Manager or commercial role
• Strategy: able to create a 3 year strategy with clear growth enablers
• Leadership skills: experience and a proven track record of motivating teams and driving results
• Analysis: be able to create meaningful insights from the data available
• Commercial: manage the category P&L, create the product commercials
• Self-starter: initiative driven with ability to identify and solve challenges efficiently
• Organisation skills: create and manage the regional NPD plan to set timelines
• Team player: build relationships and work effectively with colleagues to build and align our plans
• Communication: clearly communicate our plans to the regional & global teams
• Passion and energy: gain the engagement and excitement behind our plans by sharing the vision.
• Drive and determination: ensure the category needs are met, and the plans are implemented.