Are you a passionate and strategic category expert with a keen eye for developing excellence in retail category execution plans?
Do you want to be part of a growing team that will be leading the direction around how to unlock category and commercial growth?
Do you thrive with high levels of autonomy and have a hunger for delivering commercial results from thorough category and shopper understanding?
As a customer category manager at Arla you will be the expert in your aligned categories and channels, and will have a deep and thorough understanding on market performance, highlighting clear growth opportunities for both Arla and our retail partners and executing these in line with strategic ambitions.
Working with the sales and marketing teams, you will be a strong networker and influencer with a focus on results and execution through your commercialised category and shopper insights. You will have the leadership behaviours and experience to coach and develop colleagues to support the delivery of team and business objectives
What we offer
- Competitive salary (salary discussed at application stage)
- 26 days holiday & Bank holidays
- Hybrid & Flexible working
- Bonus Scheme up to 20% Depending on personal and business performance
- Pension contribution matched up to 6%
- 4 x annual salary life assurance
- Onsite Gym
- Access to discounted products in our Staff Shop
- People agenda commitment to training and development (internal & external )
- Flexible Benefits- buy up to 5 days annual leave, reward gateway scheme- discounts with various retailers via my benefit platform.
- Most importantly - cheese hamper at Christmas
What are the key Responsibilities as a Customer Category Manager?
- Within your aligned categories/customers, tailor and implement the areas for growth across 4 P’s -promo, pricing, placement, range/display across all channels – main estate/online/conv etc
- Tailor the Arla retailer execution plans for specified categories/customers and agree and implement long term category strategies with your customer
- Identify bespoke areas of growth for the customers through interrogating category/shopper data and execute delivery within your retailer plans.
- Implement key business projects in your customer eg, Destination Fresh, Fixture of the Future,
- Track category and customer performances providing ongoing pro-active insights to internal stakeholders and externally to customers, that translate into growth plans
- Provides monthly holistic external insights, trends and performance KPI’s (Shopper, Consumer, Retailer, Food)
- Tailor the growth driving total category range/portfolio/fixture/space plans by channel for your customer, grounded in specific shopper insight for your customer and implement the plans in year
- Grow Arla’s share of the category in each customer/channel
- Tailor innovation sell in proposals for your customer
- Lead in store trials/pilots in line with category/shopper strategies that will deliver a competitive advantage for Arla/customers, eg, fixture trials, POS trials, digital trials
- Provide clear, useful and unique insights both internally and externally from advanced analysis, generating growth driving ideas or address underperformances.
- Champion the category vision and contribute to the annual planning process, clearly guiding the strategic direction for your account.
- Lead range reviews for your customer ensuring a shopper and category first approach
- Build solid relationships in customers – become the trusted dairy partner of choice through pro-active insight delivery
- Develop independent relationship with customers proactively leading range reviews, performance updates, responding to ad hoc requests as well as pro-actively supporting your customer with insights
What Key Skills are required to be a Customer Category Manager?
Curious by nature and applies this to shopper/category understanding – A detective mindset rather than a historian!
A Storyteller – Can create the context of ‘Why’ and ‘How’ succinctly from multiple complex data sources
Commercially Astute – Full appreciation of retailer commercial challenges and business commercial challenges and able to navigate through them
A problem solver – Able to find solutions to complex category problems from lots of data without becoming ‘data blind’
Team First ‘I’ Second – A true team player and focussed on success for the team and function
A Performance Mindset and results driven
Comfortable with ambiguity and not always having 100% of the answers but enough to drive fantastic execution
Relationship Builder – can build a rapport quickly and maintain it and comfortable independently managing stakeholders
Inspires confidence – trusted to get on with the job and thrives with challenges
Fully conversant in all data sets and awesome at finding the insights – A true expert in category and shopper
Adaptable – Able to embrace change quickly and adapt to changing needs of shoppers, customers and Arla
Shopper and Category Obsessed – Genuine passion for understanding the shopper and using this understanding to drive a competitive advantage
Experience Required
Fully conversant with Kantar and Nielsen data systems
FMCG experience in category/commercial/strategy roles
Extensive experience in a customer facing category role delivering growth for customers
Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis. The advert may close early in the event we receive sufficient applicants, so please don’t delay in submitting your application.
We have a purpose for Good
At Arla, we strive to unlock the highest potential in each other while working together to create a sustainable future of dairy. We call it Stronger People Stronger Planet and it is deeply anchored in our organisation and founded on our commitment to respecting human rights, increasing access to healthy dairy nutrition, inspiring good food habits, and improving the environment for future generations. In order to succeed we need to hire people with a sustainable mindset. Could this be you?