Department: MARKETING

Sub department: EUREOPEAN CATEGORIES – Hot Drinks

Company: WESSANEN

Country: UK

PURPOSE OF JOB:

The European Category Manager is in charge of developing strong innovation/renovation projects that will contribute to the category growth. They will be a category expert both from a product/technology point of view and from a consumer/shopper point of view. They will be the key point of contact for the organisation of the Hot Drinks category, from the factory/3^rd party suppliers to the local marketing teams. They will also be responsible for portfolio management, identifying opportunities to rationalise the existing portfolio, therefore impacting positively GM%.

ORGANIZATION POSITION:

Reports to: Category Head – Hot Drinks

Direct reports: no

TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Responsible for identifying untapped consumer needs or market gaps and to turn into new concepts
• Responsible for NPDs and portfolio renovation
• Accountable for contribution to category strategy design
• Responsible for executing the category strategy, with excellence
• Responsible for co-operating and collaborating in a multi-functional team from factory teams to all local marketing teams

SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES:

Europe – currently 6 countries plus International Markets

THINKING ENVIRONMENT:

Ability to innovate, optimize and improve, adapt, plan and follow process

JOB METRICS:

• Quality of innovation pipeline
• Category growth
• GM improvement
• Portfolio complexity

KPI’s:

• KPI innovation
• NR growth
• GM%
• # of SKU in European portfolio
• Cost management (F4G savings)

KEY COMPETENCIES & BACKGROUND:

Functional skills :

• Uses various sources of data for market intelligence & anticipates the opportunities/threats on the category/brand
• Defines and articulates issues or opportunities from either multiple data sources (quant, qual, social listening) to form one coherent story & view 
• Creates and infuses an environment internally which brings the outside-in to develop category growth strategies                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
• Able to build strong business partnering cross functionally to drive category growth
• Identifies winning Inno Platforms for the category
• Leads for bigger innos the ideation, positioning and concept development to identify a winning product & compelling trade story
• Understands the consumer value drivers of the product to drive either cost out or value in projects
• Strong project management skill

Leadership skills :

•   Ability to engage positively & convince various stakeholders across the organisation
•   Strong bias for execution with excellence by developing executable plans to deliver the strategy
•   Ability to recognise opportunities and create a long term vision for the category

General skills :

• Strong analytical skills –agility with data coming from various sources & ability to drive conclusions to turn into action
• Strong ability to communicate with conciseness
• Ability to partner externally and build win-win solutions
• Strong project management skills

Background and education :

• Masters or MBA degree (preferred)
• 5-10 year experience in various marketing roles
• Multi-country and/or working in a matrix (preferred)
• Tea experience (preferred)

Job requirement:

• Fluent written and spoken English
• Frequent travelling

For questions on this job description please contact Ann Chambers: Ann.Chambers@wessanen.com