Category Development Manager

at  pladis

Want to help us bring happiness to the world? Want to join an ambitious and fast growing global biscuits and confectionery business investing heavily in iconic global brands, infrastructure and people? Then this is the place for you.
As proud bakers and chocolatiers and custodians of iconic global brands, we don’t compromise on the quality of ingredients in our products or on the people we hire. We are looking for entrepreneurial spirits who share our passion for bringing happiness to our consumers and who embody our Winning Traits.
To succeed at pladis you need to be purpose-led, resilient and positive to succeed here because we expect pace and agility, we insist on collaboration and demand accountability. If that is your thing, then pladis offers global ambition, a clear Vision and roadmap for success, challenge, and unrivalled opportunities to learn and make an impact
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ABOUT THE ROLE

The pladis Category team is a focused and dedicated team with a clear ambition to be seen as the #1 Category authority by our customers and a source of competitive advantage by our business.
Competitive advantage for pladis Category Development will come from deeply understanding consumers, customers, competitors and shoppers; and objectively translating this into simple insight-based propositions that unlock incremental volume and value for the biscuits/snacks categories and pladis.
The Category Development Manager is accountable for providing category leadership and developing and executing plans that deliver category growth, in conjunction with the Category Controller for the channel. Successful execution of the category insight will result in pladis being the category partner of choice with our customers and translate to the optimisation of range, distribution, space, location, promotions and availability of the pladis portfolio in the marketplace.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Support the Channel Controller to deliver:
CATEGORY VISION: Execution of the pladis category vision into a 3-year plan for the customer(s) that identifies new ways to unlock consumption and purchase for the snacking categories. Effectively communicates and operationalise the plan with the account team(s); bringing it to life in a simple and compelling way that inspires our customers to believe in the growth potential of snacking, whilst making clear what they need to do to unlock the value and reinforcing pladis as the #1 partner to achieve growth.
CATEGORY FUNDAMENTALS: Develop and execute differentiated strategies and tactics for focus customer(s) that maximise range, distribution, location, availability, promotions and space (macro, primary and secondary) for the category and pladis; making the biscuits/snacks category easier and more enjoyable to shop. Objectively track and evaluate category and pladis performance in the focus customer(s), identifying risks or opportunities to the pladis portfolio and proactively communicate suggested course corrections.
INSIGHTS, ANALYSIS AND REPORTING: Effectively interpret all available industry, category, customer and shopper data turning it into actionable insights that are communicated regularly to focus customer(s) and the pladis organisation e.g. category health checks, range reviews, promotional analysis and sales fundamentals.
TRANSFORMATION/SIMPLIFICATION: Ensure that workload is prioritised and focused against the biggest opportunities for the business. Implement productivity initiatives and lead the objective evaluation of Category Development activity against clear business indicators in order to drive continuous improvement on return on investment, and significant and quantifiable savings to the business.
BRAND CHAMPIONS: Work closely with the Marketing and RG&P teams to ensure that there is a clear category, consumer, shopper and retailer rationale for our brands, and that retailer operational considerations are clearly understood and acted on in the brand planning process.
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS: Build close working relationships with key internal and external customers through developing a detailed understanding of key contacts, their strategy, goals and calendar and use this understanding to proactively identify opportunities of benefit to the categories.