Category Director Fresh, Affiliated Independents (Bilingual ENG/FR)

Loblaw Companies Limited•Brampton, ON

1d•CA$120,000 - CA$154,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Category Director has ultimate accountability for the sales and EBIT of a category(ies) across all formats and is responsible for understanding and driving their business end-to-end from strategy to tactics. The Category Director will coach, mentor and develop their team and provide them direction in planning, vendor management, product assortment, pricing and promotion in support of overall group objectives and all functions that impact financial objectives. The incumbent will liaise with various internal and external stakeholders and teams in order to achieve category objectives, including but not limited to Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, Brands, Operations & Vendors. This role may be based out of either our Provigo office or Brampton office.

Requirements

5-7 years of business experience in marketing, merchandising or pricing role
Must be fully bilingual in English and French
Excellent communicator up, down and across the enterprise
Strong Financial Acumen and experience managing P&L statements
A strong understanding of the market and competitive landscape in order to recognize and capitalize on opportunities
Proven strength in having a ‘customer lens’ in all decision making process
Proven ability to develop short and long term plans in line with corporate strategies
Progressive and innovative: aggressively seeks out opportunities to improve competitiveness and demonstrates an innovative spirit.
Ability to gather and synthesize customer, competitor and market insight and information
Strong data management and analytical skills with strict attention to detail and the ability to develop business insights and effectively communicate them to the business
Creative problem solver and strategic thinker with a strong work ethic
Proven ability to deliver results in a high-pressure environment with the ability to set priorities and meet challenging deadlines.
An effective change agent who possesses the influencing skills needed to help the organization adopt new ways of thinking and to embrace more sophisticated business tools
Ability to coach and mentor direct reports and team with a focus on Colleague Development
Post-secondary education (university or professionally accredited college) or equivalent experience

Responsibilities

Develop, monitor and manage within annual category budgets in order to achieve national category P&L and GMROI for assigned category(ies).
Responsible for weekly Category reports by category including Other Vendor Income.
Implement product assortment, sales and buying plans, while advocating for their customers’ needs, in order to achieve category targets and review implementation throughout the year, adjusting as required to meet targets.
Develop and communicate merchandising direction for each retail format for assigned category(ies).
Develop and implement promotions and programs for the assigned category(ies).
Lead occasional store tours
Coach, develop and mentor direct reports. This includes explicit consideration of on-the-job training needs for each colleague, arranging appropriate training, providing timely feedback and overseeing colleague development.
Collaboratively plan activities and develop strong relationships with the vendor community in order to maximize sales & profit.
Build strong, collaborative relationships and leverage all key stakeholders to invest in their business for growth ahead of market.
Take full ownership of all key decisions and results, has a passion for their business and a desire to develop their team to similar vision
Attend and participate in other meetings as required (P&L, Sales Call, Merch/Ops Call, etc)
Other duties as assigned.