Senior Category Manager — Cooking & Baking
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Key skills for this role
About the Role
VIVA is looking for a Senior Category Manager to own the full Cooking & Baking category P&L. Responsibilities include driving category growth through assortment development, supplier negotiations, pricing execution, and promotion management.
Key Skills for This Role
Responsibilities
- Own the full Cooking & Baking category P&L — sales, margin and known loss — delivering against budget
- Drive category growth through assortment development, new product introductions, space optimisation and private label expansion
- Continuously benchmark the category against competition — assortment, pricing and promotion — identifying gaps and converting them into concrete category actions
- Lead day to day commercial negotiations and annual agreements with suppliers, securing best in market costs, terms and supplier income
- Proactively search for and onboard new suppliers — local and international — to strengthen the assortment, improve costs and de risk supply
- Manage on shelf availability in close cooperation with supply chain, resolving supply issues quickly and protecting sales
- Execute category pricing in line with the pricing strategy, aligned with the Commercial Lead, ensuring price position competitiveness
- Own promotion and leaflet decisions for the category — line selection, pricing, volumes and supplier funding — maximising traffic and margin impact
- Align sales and promotional forecasts with supply chain to secure availability while controlling stock levels
- Manage category stock health end to end, initiating timely price reductions on aging stock to minimise known loss
- Monitor supplier quality performance and own all commercial actions, decisions and financial impact resulting from quality issues
Requirements
- Proven ability to run a full category P&L — sales, margin, known loss
- Strong negotiator across day to day commercial discussions and structured annual agreements
- Deep understanding of price positioning, promotion mechanics and leaflet planning in a high volume retail environment
- Track record of identifying, qualifying and onboarding new suppliers, including import and private label sources
- Works effectively with supply chain on forecasting, availability and stock management
- Strong analytical skills; uses sales, margin, loss and competitor data to drive decisions
Full Job Posting
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Own the full Cooking & Baking category P&L — sales, margin and known loss — delivering against budget and taking corrective action where performance deviates.
- Drive category growth through assortment development, new product introductions, space optimisation and private label expansion.
- Continuously benchmark the category against competition — assortment, pricing and promotion — identifying gaps and converting them into concrete category actions.
- Lead day to day commercial negotiations and annual agreements with suppliers, securing best in market costs, terms and supplier income.
- Proactively search for and onboard new suppliers — local and international — to strengthen the assortment, improve costs and de risk supply.
- Manage on shelf availability in close cooperation with supply chain, resolving supply issues quickly and protecting sales.
- Execute category pricing in line with the pricing strategy, aligned with the Commercial Lead, ensuring price position competitiveness is maintained at all times.
- Own promotion and leaflet decisions for the category — line selection, pricing, volumes and supplier funding — maximising traffic and margin impact.
- Align sales and promotional forecasts with supply chain to secure availability while controlling stock levels.
- Manage category stock health end to end, initiating timely price reductions on aging stock to minimise known loss and free up working capital.
- Monitor supplier quality performance and own all commercial actions, decisions and financial impact resulting from quality issues — including claims, returns, delistings and recovery of costs.
SKILLS & COMPETENCIES
- Proven ability to run a full category P&L — sales, margin, known loss — and steer performance through assortment, price and promotion levers.
- Strong negotiator across day to day commercial discussions and structured annual agreements; secures terms, funding and cost improvements.
- Deep understanding of price positioning, promotion mechanics and leaflet planning in a high volume retail environment.
- Track record of identifying, qualifying and onboarding new suppliers, including import and private label sources.
- Works effectively with supply chain on forecasting, availability and stock management; understands the cost of both out of stocks and over stocks.
- Strong analytical skills; uses sales, margin, loss and competitor data to drive decisions with speed and accuracy.
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