Category Manager – Food & Alcoholic Beverages

Category Manager (Food and Alcoholic Beverages) Role Objective: We are seeking a highly analytical and commercially driven Category Manager - Food and Alcoholic Beverages to manage the end-to-end lifecycle of our Food and Alcoholic Beverage product category. You will be responsible for translating demand forecasts into optimized buying plans, maximizing category ROI, and setting dynamic SKU-level pricing strategies to drive top-line revenue and bottom-line profitability. Key Responsibilities: - Demand Planning & Purchasing: Analyse historical sales data, market trends, and seasonality to forecast demand. Execute buying strategies and purchase orders that ensure optimal inventory health without overstocking. - P&L & Category Profitability: Own the financial performance (ROI, gross margin, and inventory turnover) for your assigned categories. Identify low-performing SKUs for markdown or sunsetting, and scale high-performing lines. - SKU-Level Pricing Strategy: Develop and execute pricing models at the individual SKU level. Monitor competitor pricing, supplier costs, and demand elasticity to adjust pricing dynamically and protect profit margins. - Vendor & Supply Chain Management: Collaborate with suppliers to negotiate costs, lead times, and terms to improve the overall category margin. - Cross-Functional Alignment: Work closely with the marketing and sales teams to align promotions, product launches, and clearance events with inventory availability and pricing strategies. What We Are Looking For - Relevant experience in Category Management, commercial planning, business analytics, profitability analysis, - Strong understanding of market dynamics and business performance drivers - A commercial mindset and the ability to work closely with business teams - Strong financial acumen with direct experience managing a P&L or being held accountable for category ROI and gross margins - An open and engaging personality, comfortable meeting people and building relationships - Excellent communication, influencing, and stakeholder-management skills Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for this Role - GMROI (Gross Margin Return on Investment) - Forecast Accuracy - Sell-Through Rate - Stockouts vs. Overstock (Days of Inventory Outstanding)