Customer Category Manager at Nestlé

Position Summary

Nestlé Confectionery is an exciting and forward-thinking place to work. As part of the Nestlé Confectionery UK team, you could be working with some of the world’s best-known and most-loved brands, many of which have been enjoyed for generations. We strive to put the consumer at the heart of everything we do and deliver the best-tasting and most permissible treats for consumers day after day. 

Across our category function we are a hugely supportive team, sharing the value of open communication whilst working towards common but ambitious strategic goals.

We are recruiting for a Customer Category Manager to join the team on a fixed term contract, reporting into the Customer Category Lead. This is an exciting and pivotal role that will see you develop, manage and execute our customer category plans working in partnership with one of the major multiples, discounters, bargain stores or convenience retailers. We are ideally looking for an experienced professional who has the ability to be category centric, always ‘put the category first’ ensuring we operate as a partner to our customers.

Whilst category experience is strongly preferred, we are happy to hear from you if you have a breadth of commercial experience with a demonstrated ability to turn data into commercial outcomes. What’s key is that we deliver value adding insight that drives category growth for the long term with our customers and which enables Nestlé to build plans which support that growth.

 A day in the life of a Customer Category Manager...

You will be responsible for developing and deploying tailored channel and category plans at a customer level, including point of purchase solutions to deliver overall category performance resulting in market share growth for Nestlé, whilst ensuring impartiality with the customer. 
 
You will also:

• Build great external relationships to become the leader of our customers’ thinking and actions and by being their first port of call as a trusted source for Buying / Merchandising / Ranging Teams relating to any category questions, insight and growth recommendations
• Execute Nestlé category strategy, personalisation of the category strategy to meet the retailer’s needs and generate engagement and commitment
• Successfully execute the category drivers for the channel within your customer via the delivery of the point of purchase (POP) Vision, through adjacency and flow recommendations to retailers at range reviews and throughout the year to deliver the Perfect Store
• Deliver best in class insight to influence retailers to land best in class executions online & in store.
• Have a deep understanding of the role of the shopper across different store formats and online within your customer
• Closely monitor industry and competitor activity, to ensure our strategic commercial vision is in line with market demands in a constantly changing, competitive environment that we work in
• Work closely with internal teams at Nestlé to bring the outside in and ensure our NPD / brand pipelines suit the customer and consumer need.

What will make you successful

To be successful, you’ll already have some fantastic category and/or commercial experience under your belt, ideally with proven delivery in a previous category role. You will be passionate, tenacious, results driven and enjoy working in a highly energetic and exciting environment. Acting as an ambassador for our Nestlé Confectionery brands, you will be commercially aware and have experience of influencing across all levels internally and externally, ideally within a matrix structure. 
You will also:

• Have a great analytical approach to drive insight and be able to transform data into compelling stories that drives actions and return on investment``
• Be curious to understand the changing shopper dynamics, and have an energy to translate insights into clear recommendations that drive category growth
• Ideally, have experience of creating and selling winning category plans within an FMCG environment
• Be resilient, adaptable, demonstrating an agility to use your initiative to solve challenges rapidly and often in a creative way
• Understand the importance and benefits of working in a customer centric way
• Be courageous, we’re not afraid to think differently and embrace new ideas. We embrace new thinking to drive great results and change
• Love of learning, understanding 'why?' and ability to share this both externally and internally in a compelling way
• A desire to step beyond the role to get involved in activities that benefit communities and groups we share support.