Senior Category Manager - Pet in Leeds

Location: Leeds, LS15 or Bardon, LE67. We operate a hybrid schedule, meaning 2-3 days a week on site.

Salary: £40,000 - £60,000 per annum DOE, plus up to a 10% annual discretionary bonus and our extensive benefits.

Contract type: Permanent

Employment type: Full time

Working hours: Monday – Friday 37.5 hours per week. We work on a core hours principle. Our core hours are 09:30 - 16:00; you can work around these to suit you!

Do you want to work for the nation’s largest online pharmacy ensuring excellence for all our patients? We’re a market leader in the pharmacy world, with 25 years’ experience, helping over 1.6 million patients in England manage their NHS prescriptions from request through to delivery. We are Great Place to Work certified as we consider colleague experience a top priority every day, and as a certified B Corp we also meet high standards of social and environmental responsibility. Our people are fundamental to our success and ensuring we achieve our vision to be a world leading, patient-centric digital healthcare provider. We are committed to continuing to develop a positive, open and honest working environment for all.

As the Senior Category Manager for the Pet health business, you will lead the strategic management of the core Pet health and wellness categories; Medicines across over the counter and NFA VPS, vitamins etc. You will be responsible for delivering category growth, enhancing customer experience, and maximising profitability through data-driven strategies, supplier collaboration, and cross-functional alignment.

What’s in it for you?

• Occupational sick pay
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay
• Contributory pension
• Discounted insurance (Aviva)
• Employee discount site
• Discounted gyms (via our blue light card and benefits schemes)
• Employee assistance programme
• In-house mental health support
• Health and wellbeing initiatives
• Social events throughout the year
• Cycle to work scheme
• Green car scheme*(subject to minimum earnings)
• Registration fees paid (GPhC, NMC, CIPD etc)
• Long service bonus
• Refer a friend bonus
• Blue light card
• Hybrid working
• Commitment to CPD/training
• 25 days annual leave increasing with service
• Annual leave buy and sell scheme
• Discounts & Exclusive offers at The Springs, Leeds
• 25% Discount & health & beauty purchases
• 25% Discount on Pharmacy2U Private Online Doctor Services

What you’ll be doing?

• Build a clear and cohesive range strategy for pet medicines, identifying which competitors to benchmark against for both range and pricing.
• Negotiate and implement the lowest possible cost prices with direct suppliers forming new relationships and drawing on past relationships to ensure the right supplier base to underpin the commercial strategy.
• Negotiate marketing support on appropriate brands to support planned campaigns and agree opportunities for funding new campaigns and co-branded onsite collateral in collaboration with the marketing team.
• Build the supplier base, acquiring the new suppliers needed to deliver the commercial plan and growth plan.
• Manage retail pricing on the website to optimise margin and price competitiveness against our peers in the market, including (if appropriate) the development of an automated pricing report using a third party to scrape competitor websites and present the data each week.
• Order or oversee the ordering of stock for pet medicines and ensure availability is as close to full as possible, working with the data team and Director of Veterinary Operations to ensure reporting is in place to support and measure this.
• Agree, own and deliver the trading P&L for pet medicines (buying margin, gross margin, rebates and retros, marketing support).
• Where appropriate and legal, build and execute a promotional/activity plan with suppliers that drives revenue and cash margin, in conjunction with the marketing team and merchandising team.
• Build and agree a cohesive strategy for stock hold and supply of pet medicines including consideration of drop ship opportunities to minimise cube and stock holding value, whilst maximising choice and revenue.

Who are we looking for?

• Previous category management experience across one or more of the following areas desirable but not essential: Medicines and/or Healthcare.
• Proven experience of veterinary supply chain/buying/commercial would be preferred.
• Experience of working in a pressured environment, delivering against tight deadlines.
• Knowledge of and ability to use back-office systems e.g. AMO, SAP and others as required.
• Ability to use Excel at intermediate level (Vlookups, pivot tables, calculations, sort and filter etc).
• Ability to negotiate effectively with suppliers as appropriate in order to achieve margin targets.
• Awareness of buying/category management/e-commerce operations.
• Experience creating, developing and maintaining relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
• Advanced negotiation skills with a history of securing advantageous supplier terms.

What happens next?

Please click apply and if we think you are a good match, we will be in touch to arrange an interview. Applicants must prove they have the right to live in the UK. All successful applicants will be required to undergo a DBS check. Unsolicited agency applications will be treated as a gift.