North American Associate Category Manager

Gordon Food Service•Wyoming, MI

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Welcome to Gordon Food Service! We are excited that you are thinking about opportunities with us, and we have an amazing story to share. See below for a quick glance of who we are and the impact you could have on the food service industry. There's a seat at our table for you... Position Summary: The North American Associate Category Manager works with national vendors to drive operational excellence and manages, develops, and implements go-to market activities to support division sales and marketing strategy. Responsible for regional vendor management and product lifecycle management of the region and division-specific vendors and product portfolio ensuring optimal product mix focused on defined customer needs, operational efficiency, and financial goals as well as product discontinuation/deletions. Collaborates with key stakeholders on the national category team, merchandising teams, and vendors to execute strategies to achieve sales, margin, and brand goals. Supports go-to-market product and vendor strategy execution informed by Category Management plans, knowledge of current trends, internal and external category data, and feedback from engaged relationships with GFS regional merchandising and division marketing teams.

Requirements

Three or more years previous experience in brand, product or category management.
Bachelor Degree in Sales, Marketing, or other related field is preferred.
Leverages business and management principles to drive strategic planning, foster creativity, and generate innovative ideas.
Utilizes logic, data analysis, and critical thinking to identify complex problems, evaluate options, and implement effective solutions.
Proficient in using analytics tools (e.g., Excel, Access) to provide insights and support decision-making.
Demonstrates exceptional active listening, verbal, and written communication skills to effectively present findings, share strategies, and collaborate with teams.
Possesses strong organizational and time-management skills to manage multiple projects, create and follow processes, and deliver results on time and within budget.
Applies knowledge of marketing, product merchandising, and customer service principles to meet customer needs and ensure satisfaction.

Responsibilities

Acts as primary category contact for internal shareholders and external vendor community
Acts as a key product specification resource, including product certification and defining key attributes
Works with the Quality Assurance Team and vendors on resolution to product quality issues
Responsible for supporting all segments of the business
Responsible for Vendor Ownership and product lifecycle management of the regional products, including the selection of new products (both products and product slotting locations), ensuring optimum product mix focused on defined customer needs, operational efficiency, and financial goals as well as product discontinuation/deletions.
Collaborates with Strategic Category Management to balance the appropriate product mix between regional and enterprise product portfolio.
Manages regional vendor performance
Executes vendor business reviews
Supports Supply Chain with vendor escalation on mid- to long-term vendor service level improvement and plans to ensure product availability to meet customer needs
Responsible for developing alternative supply solutions to support customer needs
Works with other departments (Education segment, Stores, etc ) to support Inventory Planning - I.e. back to school, seasonal products, etc)
Supports the creation of product content/attributes working with vendors and marketing communications
Responsible for working with vendors on Food show participation and activity planning
Assists in escalation process with Vendor Receivables, Category Support and Divisions on vendor dispute resolution
Works with vendors on driving continuous improvement of VIP Scorecard metrics
Collaborates with the Divisional Merchandising Teams on sales facing strategy execution
Performs other duties as assigned.