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Grocery Category Lead

Location: Uxbridge

Contract type: Permanent

What you become part of:

In an increasingly competitive and challenging market place, at CCEP we see the role of the Category Development as pivotal to delivering our business performance. The team's primary objective is to deliver an inspiring and insightful vision for the Soft Drinks category, today and in the future. In order to unlock growth we need our team to be strategic, long term focused, analytical and great influencers to work in partnership with our customers and key internal stakeholders. Reporting in to the Director for Category Management you will responsible for the development and implementation of a category strategy to unlock growth potential across the Grocery customers. CCEP Category Development is ranked #2 in the Advantage Group Survey by Grocery customers, you will lead a team of 7 category managers and executives to develop collaborative plans with our customers which unlock long term Soft Drinks category growth.

What to expect:                                                                       

• Support in the development of a clear vision for the Soft Drinks category, creating a framework for growth with a clear and relevant category strategy for all Grocery environments and key customers
• Develop strategic plans with key accounts that identify opportunities to drive performance
• Drive CCEP strategic thinking and value creation story with Retailers by engaging with Buyers, Merchandisers and Category Directors 
• Collaborate with the Category Strategy team to co-create and shape future, long term drivers of growth for Grocery channel
• Support your team to roll out range relays, macro space resets, future thinking around channel strategies and Customer Business Planning Days
• Establish and maintain a mutually beneficial customer contact strategy and help broaden our engagement with our Grocery customers
• Work in collaboration with key internal stakeholders (including National Accounts, R&MGM and Insights) to ensure alignment and execution against the category and brand strategies
• Manage and support the category managers and executives to develop their capability
• Lead the Annual Business Planning process from a Category perspective
• Ensure delivery of quality category analysis reports, delivering insight to our customers on a regular basis
• Manage relationships with external providers (category and customer specific) to ensure we have access to the highest quality data available for our customers and environments.
• Drive change by automating range reviews, launch strategic projects such as channel strategy and Platinum store across key customers

Skills & Experience:         

• Previous FMCG Category Management experience and strong knowledge of the Grocery channel is desirable
• People management experience, with strong leadership skills
• Demonstrate passion, proactive ownership and resilience for growing the category
• Strong listening and influencing skills at various levels within the organisation and with customers
• Ability to influence diverse stakeholder groups
• Behaviours: Drive for innovation, change, agile, curious mind set, resilience, determination, and drive are key
• Drive for innovation, change and agile ways of working
• In-depth knowledge of Nielsen, GfK and other data providers
• We are encouraging applications from candidates who have previous experience of collaborating with large customers, are highly numerate and analytical