Category Strategy Director

4 weeks ago

Surrey, United Kingdom Vertical Advantage Full time

Category Lead

At Vertical Advantage, we're seeking a seasoned Category Lead to champion our category team and drive commercial objectives. This role involves leading a talented category team, ensuring the strategic direction of the category function aligns with overall business goals. As part of the commercial leadership team, you will provide leadership, foster collaboration, and represent the category perspective through insightful shopper and consumer analysis.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Lead, manage, and coach a team of category professionals to deliver on key commercial objectives.
  • Drive category strategic initiatives, including Category Strategy, Channel Strategy, and Shopper Insight Plans.
  • Optimize core category processes such as range management, NPD process, and development of listing rationale.
  • Prioritize resources to maximize short, medium, and long-term business opportunities.
  • Manage relationships with external agencies (Circana & Kantar), ensuring effective use of category data and insights.
  • Operational responsibility for key customer accounts (Asda & Morrisons) and for managing specific category segments, such as Kids or Indulgence.

Behavioural Attributes:

  • Strong category expertise with the ability to establish credibility and influence senior management both internally and externally.
  • Confident in decision-making and able to stand by your convictions while also bringing others along with you.
  • Future-focused, with the ability to think beyond current performance to anticipate changes in the category landscape.
  • Strong leadership and coaching skills to effectively manage and develop the category team.

Additional Responsibilities:

  • Build relationships with retail partners by presenting unbiased, data-driven insights that influence decision-making and drive category growth.
  • Collaborate closely with Brand teams to develop insight-led NPD propositions and trade presentations centered around category, shopper, and consumer needs.
  • Provide rationale to support range and distribution expansion opportunities.
  • Manage relationships and data from sources like Dunnhumby to support decision-making.

Operational Responsibilities:

Customer Leadership

  • Develop and own category strategies for key customers, ensuring alignment with their priorities and goals.
  • Deliver ongoing category updates, recommendations for range reviews, and merchandising improvements to capitalize on distribution and space opportunities.
  • Attend Monthly Account Reviews (MAR) and provide insights and actions to enhance performance.

Marketing and NPD for Indulgence Brands

  • Lead the category strategy for brand plans, working closely with Marketing to develop the right product mix for NPD.
  • Estimate sales volume and category opportunities for new products, securing distribution targets with customers.
  • Present NPD trade proposals and evaluate merchandising opportunities to optimize sales.

Key Qualifications:

  • Current experience as a Category Lead or Senior Category Manager with at least 12 months in the role and a minimum of 3 years in Category Management.
  • Strong experience in the FMCG sector, ideally within categories involving chilled or short shelf-life products.
  • Proven experience leading strategic category projects and delivering insights that drive business growth.
  • Demonstrated leadership and people management experience.
  • Excellent IT skills, particularly in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, with proficiency in Kantar and Circana data sources.

This role offers a fantastic opportunity for an experienced Category professional to lead a high-performing team and make a significant impact on category strategy and business growth.

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