Senior Category Manager

Senior Category Manager

Reporting into the Category Marketing Controller
Based at Claygate

Dairy Crest is entering a very exciting period of growth focussing on investment and development of our existing strong brands including Cathedral City, Country Life and Clover. 

By leading the category strategy on a key account and being the category experts of our industry, this is a great opportunity to win with our customers and drive our business direction.

Purpose of Job

• This role also has a category executive reporting in so strong leadership.line management skills are essential
• The Senior Category Manager role is a pivotal one that brings together the relationship between Dairy Crest and a top 4 Key Retailer to create effective Category growth solutions and fully maximise the Category and Dairy Crest performance. 
• This is done by the delivery of best in class Category management plans and recommendations across Cheese, Butters + Spreads 
• These plans are built on objective and actionable insights which are led from the consumer, shopper or customer and which unlock mutually beneficial growth for a top 4 Key Retailer and Dairy Crest.  
• The Senior Category manager also leads the category agenda cross functionally within the business for a specific category i.e. Snacking Cheese. This means influencing, informing and guiding the key stakeholders within Dairy Crest on future direction and opportunities within the Category.

Nature & Scope of the Job

• The Dairy category is the third largest grocery category worth over £10 billion. This combined by working with some of the UK’s biggest and best dairy brands and the UK’s biggest retailer is a high profile opportunity for an innovative and strategic thinker to demonstrate category leadership and personal development. 
• The job is about changing shopper’s behaviour and leveraging growth through the standard levers of more people, more often, more purchases or more money. Essentially it’s about delivering the insight that will change performance at the point of purchase. Whilst highly analytical in nature it is more important that you can deliver this robust insight, from a pool of resources and utilise them to designing and tailoring the strategies for success with the key retailer and the wider team in Dairy Crest. 
• For the right candidate it is a significant opportunity as it’s about bringing a compelling category vision for internal and external contacts and using this to drive category growth and Dairy Crest’s share within those.
• Due to the high profile nature of this role the successful candidate must be skilled at building relationships at all levels. Importantly they must be comfortable at flexing to differing styles whilst demonstrating passion, building trust and gaining mutual respect with all customers.
• In terms of structure the Category team, sits alongside the Shopper Marketing and Continuous Insight Teams and feeds directly into the Head of Category & Shopper Development, which is part of the Group Commercial function.  

Principal Accountabilities

• Provide objective category management expertise to the retailer in the areas of product, promotions, range, merchandising, shoppers and coverage to enable Dairy Crest to be viewed as trusted Category experts within our categories and Dairy.
• Develop, deliver communicate and embed the vision and strategy for the new Category growth drivers within the retailer’s business.
• Build strong relationships with buying, business planning & merchandising contacts with a clear contact strategy
• Become the lead, for a dedicated category becoming the “go to person” within the business for key Category input, direction and thoughts by becoming the chosen category adviser
• Use high level category/segment knowledge to proactively highlight business issues/opportunities/risks to relevant commercial and marketing colleagues.  
• Delivery of monthly actionable recommendations to the retailer (and team) based on category insight working with the retailer to develop collaborative category initiatives, plans and ad hoc projects. 
• Lead the range review process with the retailer, and internally, setting the strategic category direction, managing in depth opportunity analyses, including segmentation, range, space & merchandising recommendations as appropriate.  
• Monitor & implement Category management trends and techniques within the industry.
• Provide a promotional review process with the retailer to evaluate both Dairy Crest and competitor brand performance and develop the optimal promotional plan to ensure sustainable growth of the our Categories. 
• Support Dairy Crest brand initiatives and NPD delivery by providing category rationale for the retailer. 
• Develop new techniques and processes to support the Category Team with regard to both training and development. 
• Develop category executive to move up to next level through management, coaching, training, objective-setting and empowerment
• Be an ambassador for the category team coaching junior members and demonstrating an example of best in class category management

Knowledge & Experience Required

• 5 – 8 years experience with a strong record of success in a Blue Chip FMCG environment in Category.
• A proven track record of successfully leading and working with retailers on large and complex category strategies and their implementation.
• Proven experience in building strong and successful relationships with multiple grocers through regular face to face meetings
• Proven experience influencing both customers and colleagues in Commercial and Marketing 
• Proven experience in successfully managing and growing a grocery category within a fast paced FMCG or Retail environment 
• Proven experience in the development, implementation and review of category plans and range reviews 
• Good knowledge of merchandising and point of purchase planning
• Strongly analytical & proficient in the use of external market data tools with the ability to turn data into insight using and interpreting Nielsen / IRI & Kantar data systems. 
• Educated to degree level (or equivalent.)