Category Manager - National Grocery Chain

Category Manager - National Grocery Chain

Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minnesota

Description

(Overview)

At Schwan’s Company, the opportunities are real, and the sky is the limit; this isn’t just a job, it’s a seat at the table. Around here, every job matters, every voice counts, and every person contributes in a big way. As part of our front lines, we look to you to execute business, build relationships, and take pride in your work because at Schwan’s, you lead the way and we value what you bring. Our passion is our food. Our secret is our people.

Schwan’s Company, a U.S. affiliate of the global lifestyle company, CJ CheilJedang Corporation, is a leading U.S. manufacturer and marketer of quality foods offered through retail-grocery and food-service channels. Our many popular brands include Red Baron®, Tony’s®, Big Daddy’s®, Villa Prima™ and Freschetta® pizza; Mrs. Smith’s® and Edwards® desserts; and Pagoda® and Bibigo Asian-style snacks. Schwan’s is a place for people with an appetite for more. To learn about joining a team where you can belong, contribute, and thrive, visit

Schwan's is hiring a Category Manager, to be based in Bloomington, MN supporting a large National Grocery Chain. In this customer-facing role, you will function as an expert in the frozen pizza, frozen desserts, frozen Asian, and Shelf Stable Asian category. As part of the home office insights center of excellence, every day will bring a variety of opportunities for your thought leadership. Your critical thinking skills will grow as you build strategic rationales using your objective Consumer – and Shopper-centric analytics. Your influence will be based on factual insights which will help drive profitable growth for retailers and for Schwan’s.

Responsibilities

• Pricing Analysis
• Develop customer-facing category presentations complete with actionable recommendations;
• Track and deliver weekly/monthly retailer category performance scorecards
• Some travel (20%)
• Seasonality review
• Experience with retailer POS data necessary; shopper/loyalty card data desired 
• Strong presentation skills to retail buyers
• High level of experience in generating, interpreting and analyzing syndicated data: (Nielsen/IRI, retailer and shopper data) and secondary data to build actionable insights and recommendations 
• Provide business situation assessment that is leveraged in joint business plan development with key stakeholders
• Integrating custom shopper research
• Ensure retailer’s category strategies are appropriately communicated internally (Upstream/downstream)
• Present consumer, shopper and category insights in a comfortable, positive, influential manner
• Cultivate multiple internal and external relationships across the retailer and within the Schwan’s organization 
• 3+ years’ experience in related fields for Category Managers (CPG Preferred)
• Excellent with Excel and PowerPoint 
• Incorporating multiple data sources
• Influence retailers and internal partners around optimal assortment (rationality, space-to-sales, retailer differentiation strategy, shopper affinity, etc.)
• Space planning and planogram software (either JDA or Apollo) 
• Promotion Analysis 
• Market and industry trends
• Competitive review
• Experienced with volume decomposition methodology 
• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent; MBA preferred