JOB DESCRIPTION

Category Manager Food Service

A. STRUCTURE

• Department: Operations - Pricebook
• Supervisor: Sr Director of Category Management
• Status: Exempt

B. SCOPE

• Category Manager Food Service ensures that the retail strategy for their assigned area of business is documented, communicated to field personnel, and executed. Food Service will focus on grab-and-go items, roller grill, hot dogs, pizza, bakery, and warmer tray items. The Category Manager manages & analyzes their assigned category, starting with setting up the products, providing a cost breakdown, and retail setup based on acceptable margins. The Category Manager is responsible for planning assortment, developing pricing strategy, planning promotional activity, and managing key supply chain relationships within their assigned category. They will contribute to the profitability of their category by driving and optimizing sales to meet set margin targets. The Category Manager will also support merchandising efforts and collaborate with wholesalers/logistics partners to execute replenishment. With food service initiatives, the Category Manager will document standard operating procedures, coordinate training as appropriate, and verify safety and sanitation standards are understood and executed in retail outlets.

C. RESPONSIBILITIES

• Act as subject matter expert in assigned categories, providing thought leadership to organization.
• Serve in a support role to the Companys dispensed beverage strategy.
• Reevaluate sourcing standards as a team to ensure alignment with company mission and category assortment needs.
• Ensure items are setup correctly in Pricebook systems and within our acceptable margins.
• Coordinate communications if any changes and align with the field merchandisers regarding price changes, updating tags and/or menus, and verify items are scanning on the register.
• Full knowledge of all contracts, rebates, discounts, and coordinate billing with the Accounting team.
• Analyze internal and external data to develop category strategy aligned with industry and consumer trends.
• Manage onboarding and offboarding of products within time-bound category review schedule in accordance with sourcing standards.
• Foster trusting, win-win partnerships with producers and other supply chain partners.
• Work with producers and suppliers to resolve any reliability, compliance, and quality issues.
• Negotiate costs, distribution and delivery terms with suppliers and execute pricing strategy to meet margin targets for assigned categories.
• Examine competition to determine trends and pricing bandwidth.
• Work with Buyers and Merchandisers to implement successful exit strategies for stagnant items from inventory.
• Manages, improves and recommends the product assortment for the stores on a national basis for assigned category.
• Develops annual category plans which include current situation analysis, vision/strategy, and specific category plans.
• Plans include assortment and positioning, product improvements and development plans, projected revenues and gross profit, display, price, promotion, and communication to stores.
• Drill plans down into seasonal calendars, monthly implementation plans, and recurring assortment change calendars.
• Performs monthly analysis and verification of plans.
• Provides explanations for variances in budgeted sales and gross profit and provides projection for upcoming months.
• Develops an in-depth understanding of the key strategic initiatives and policies of merchandising and ensures assigned category strategies are within Merchandising and Corporate strategy and policy.
• Develops pricing strategy for assigned categories.
• Develops recommended retail pricing guidelines (which are subject to senior leadership approval) for the stores to optimize category profitability and establishes suggested retail prices within these guidelines.
• Reviews competitor pricing information gathered by Regional Merchandisers and recommends pricing.
• Works with merchandising leadership on advertising/promotions for assigned category.
• Works on POP, co-op agreements and promotion timetables and strategies.
• Develops cost/benefit analysis to determine return on advertising and promotional dollars. Vendor or Supplier Relationships / Supply Chain Management.
• Identifies leverage opportunities with vendors and negotiates contracts (working with Procurement), supply agreements and/or programs to achieve the lowest possible acquisition costs (cost of goods) for products selected for the categories on an ongoing basis.
• Works with suppliers to stabilize product supply through forecasting of key products to solve issues.
• Reviews and works with manufacturers to resolve out-of-stock issues.
• Develops and maintains effective working relationships with representatives and senior management of national suppliers.
• Meets with national vendors on a regular basis to discuss new product development and ways to lower costs.
• Owns the strategic Product Assortment direction and guidelines for assigned categories.
• Gathers input from the Merchandisers into regional assortment needs.
• Manages the implementation of field tests for new products and categories.
• Oversees verification of tests performed by Merchandisers and determines next course of action based upon verification results.
• Reviews solicitations from potential suppliers to determine if potential product is viable for the company.
• Conduit for communication.
• As lead for the assigned category, owns communication of key strategic initiatives across the organization.
• Manages day to day communication of key messaging to assigned categories across Merchandising, Digital Marketing, Operations and other related groups.
• Weekly category review of all items per category, monitor price changes and exception reports.
• Other duties as assigned.

D. QUALIFICATIONS

• 3+ years relevant work experience in category management, preferably in the designated category
• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Marketing or related field, or related experience
• Experience purchasing in assigned categories preferred
• Strong negotiation skills
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Outstanding communication and time management skills
• Experience managing relationships with external partners of various scale, demonstrating a commitment to flexibility without compromising business objectives
• Deep understanding of margins and profitability
• Subject matter expertise for products within assigned categories; category retail experience a plus
• Experience negotiating pricing and capturing trade spend to fund promotional activities with producers, suppliers, and brokers
• Understanding of quality standards, certifications, regulations, trends within assigned categories
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Proficiency in Google and Microsoft Office suite software (i.e. spreadsheets, presentation, and word processing software)
• Experience analyzing reports and utilizing databases, SQL skills a plus