Category Growth Manager - Multicultural

Coborn's, Inc.•Saint Cloud, MN

7d•Onsite

About The Position

At Coborn’s, Inc., we believe our stores should reflect the communities we serve. As our Multicultural Category Manager, you’ll have an exciting opportunity to shape how we connect with increasingly diverse guests by bringing authentic, culturally relevant products, brands, and experiences to our stores. In this role, you’ll combine category management, merchandising strategy, product sourcing, supplier development, and community insights to build assortments that meet the evolving needs of our guests while driving sales, profitability, market share, and category growth. You’ll serve as a key subject matter expert for multicultural merchandising—identifying emerging consumer trends, developing relationships with established and emerging brands, partnering with diverse-owned businesses, and connecting with communities to better understand what our guests want and need. If you’re passionate about retail, food, culture, community, and discovering products that create meaningful connections with guests, this is an opportunity to make a visible impact across our employee-owned organization.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Merchandising, Marketing, Supply Chain, Retail Management, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
Five or more years of progressive experience in category management, merchandising, buying, sourcing, retail operations, or a related field.
Demonstrated experience developing and executing category strategies, including assortment, pricing, promotions, and/or product sourcing.
Experience leveraging consumer, sales, market, competitive, and demographic insights to identify opportunities and support strategic business decisions.
Proven experience building supplier relationships and negotiating product costs, terms, promotional support, and other business agreements.

Nice To Haves

Experience within grocery, food retail, consumer products, or a multi-location retail environment is preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead Multicultural Category Strategy: Develop and execute category and merchandising strategies that drive sales, profitability, market share, and guest satisfaction while responding to evolving consumer trends and community needs.
Build Relevant Assortments: Create authentic, culturally relevant assortments using guest insights, demographics, market trends, competitive intelligence, and community feedback to identify gaps and growth opportunities.
Source Products & Develop Suppliers: Identify and build partnerships with multicultural brands, emerging suppliers, local businesses, and diverse-owned businesses while leading negotiations and managing supplier performance.
Drive Category Performance: Own financial plans and key performance indicators, including sales, margin, inventory, and shrink, using data and insights to continuously improve results.
Shape Pricing & Promotions: Partner with Pricing, Marketing, and Operations to develop competitive pricing, promotional strategies, and culturally relevant programs that strengthen guest engagement.
Bring Strategies to Life: Collaborate with Space Management, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing, and store leadership to execute assortments, resets, product launches, seasonal programs, and localized merchandising strategies.
Connect With Our Communities: Build relationships with community leaders, organizations, guests, and local partners to better understand evolving needs and identify opportunities to strengthen our connection with the communities we serve.
Lead & Influence: Serve as a multicultural merchandising and category subject matter expert, communicating strategies and insights across the organization while coaching and developing assigned team members.

Benefits

Medical & Dental insurance with Health Savings Account (HSA), Flexible Spending Account (FSA) options
Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP)
401(k) plan options
Competitive Paid Time Off (PTO/Vacation)
10% employee discount on grocery items, with additional franchise-specific discounts available at company-owned Ace Hardware, Caribou Coffee, Erbert and Gerbert's, and Pet Supplies Plus locations.
Additional Voluntary Benefits – such as vision, accident and critical illness insurances
Adoption Reimbursement, Paid Family Caregiver Leave, as well as company-sponsored Term Life Insurance
Get Paid Daily with DailyPay
Paid Military Leave
Employee recognition programs with monetary rewards, including in-store vouchers, years of service, and employee of the month
Employee Health & Wellness Programs, Challenges and Resources
Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
Access to a national discount marketplace for travel, electronics, auto/home insurance, entertainment and more!
Tools, resources and opportunities for career growth and development
Education benefits including tuition discount and scholarship programs