Produce Specialist

Piggly Wiggly Food/Fresh For Less and Affiliated Companies•Sneads, FL

11d•Onsite

About The Position

We are looking for a Director, Produce Merchandising at our Main Headquarters Office in Sneads, FL. This position will travel to our locations in north Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. The Produce Director is responsible for providing overall leadership and direction for company’s business to achieve profitable sales and program development. The Director drives implementation of best practices and achieves consistency for key processes related to product placement, pricing, promotion, procurement, and vendor partnerships. The Director is responsible to manage the procurement and development of goods and commercial programs to attain service and quality standards.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required
7-10+ years of Category Management or related experience
Possesses strong merchandising, product and marketing skills
Strong ability to identify global issues and communicate within the organization
Demonstrate strong analytical, negotiating and problem-solving skills
Ability develop/maintain strong working relationships with peers and cross-functional teams
Demonstrates leadership and decision-making skills
Demonstrates strong listening, written and oral communication skills
Willing and able to travel for trade shows and store trips
Flexible and adaptive to changing priorities
Able to organize and prioritize workload to meet deadlines
Takes calculated risks to achieve results
Develops creative solutions to business issues
Identifies emerging trends and shops competition and market regularly
Demonstrated skills with MS Office applications
Experience managing distribution vendors
Project management skills

Responsibilities

Plan and direct the company's merchandising programs for the Produce departments to develop programs which will result in achievement of targeted sales and margin.
Direct and maintain accountabilities for all buying and pricing of products; regularly prepare and deliver reports on department performance, including pricing, promotion, sales, margin, new programs and products, and quality standard
Develop brand strategies and the role this segment plays within each department; collaborate closely with the brand team on product development to ensure quality and desired strategic objectives are achieved.
Collaborate with Merchandise Operations to support execution of Pricing and Promotional Strategies, Space Planning execution and Distribution/Transportation expectations.
Collaborate with Marketing and eCommerce to ensure product quality and value is messaged appropriately and consistently
Partner and collaborate with Store Operations on merchandising strategies, execution expectations as well as evaluation to improve both upstream planning process and downstream execution standards
Monitor the competitive climate and develop strategies to maximize performance
Stay abreast of emerging industry trends and foster innovation
Determine and direct promotion and display plans.
Perform frequent and regular store visits to monitor and adjust store strategies
Support and assist in the development of the company communication standards to maximize business efficiencies and employee effectiveness
Work collaboratively within the company to optimize seasonal rotation, new and discontinued products, and customer engagement/loyalty initiatives
Be a TFM brand ambassador within the Food Retail industry; strong partnership and collaboration with industry vendors and council organizations
Set a positive example for the desired culture and values of the organization.
Hire, coach, train and develop merchandising staff to meet business growth needs
Set clear performance expectations for direct reports and follow-up with timely performance evaluations; inspire, encourage, and lead staff to innovate in sourcing and finding ways to market both new and existing products to customers