Category Manager This big retailer is one to watch and is unusual in that they look beyond the traditional retail script and are open to supplier side high flyers as well as retail talent This role is strategic retailing at its best You will take ownership for a significant category develop merchandise ranges to that meet the price quality range and offering their customers demand You will develop manage and help implement industryleading and profitable category management strategies for the retail channel partners and work collaboratively across your team to be innovative and one step ahead of the competitors This will involve monitoring competitor activity in the market to ensure the pricing range merchandising promotional advertising activity and service proposition reflects their market dominance The role is all about contract negotiations providing support for sourcing initiatives with the merchandise marketing team analysing marketing spend creating a competitive advantage through cost reduction by taking total ownership and partnering internal and external business partners and more You will need to be comfortable unpicking a lot of complex data and developing strategies to face challenges in the market be able to work under time pressure to keep the business as usual tasks going while also working on new projects and helping to improve processes within the wider Merchandise team that position them for the future be able to look at all elements of how we get our product to find efficiencies and sell those within the business own relationships with your suppliers and keep the tension between a productive working relationship and pushing for better terms Mostly we seek talent for the future you ll be part of a proven succession path Ideally you will have previous exposure to product management or buying from a retail consumer type background whether you are retail or supplier side of the fence You ll be commercially smart preferably tertiary qualified and already demonstrating the tangible successes in your categories that sets you apart from your peers Mediocre need not apply but equally we don t want show ponies you are grounded real and willing to be a team player Clearly you ll need to be a top notch communicator able to confidently influence across all levels Looking for better ways of doing things and adding value will be second nature to you
