Category Manager – Premium Bakery Products

Part of the privately owned Le Duff Group, Bridor is a leading supplier of premium Continental Pastries, Bread and Patisserie. Following strong growth both globally and within the UK, Bridor are looking to appoint a Category Manager to support their future growth across the Retail and Foodservice marketplaces.

Responsibilities

Develop customer relationships through contribution of meaningful category insight (market, trends, products, consumers); Help to deliver growth in our core categories of Viennoiserie and Bread, across own label and Bridor-branded products; Supporting Bridor Account Managers across Retail and Foodservice, by providing compelling category arguments, to deliver commercial targets; Build a bank of knowledge, data and insight, from a variety of different sources, to put Bridor at the forefront of customers minds in terms of category leadership; Supporting the development of the Category Management function across the EMEA region; Aligning Bridor commercial objectives with the customers’ specific goals and objectives, and then delivering insight-led proposals to deliver win-win solutions; Drive the category review agenda within our key Retail and Foodservice customers, ensuring that Bridor are seen as the leaders in category management; Active participation in, and shaping the direction of Joint Business Plans with our key customers; Influencing the NPD agenda of our key customers – shaping briefs before they are received through the sharing of key trends and insights; Developing close relationships with key functions within our key customers – category planners, NPD managers, marketeers, buyers etc.; Become a trusted and respected member of the Bridor-Customer relationships; Work closely with Bridor marketing teams, to fully understand our own strategies across Viennoiserie and Bread, and to embed these into the core of our customer proposals; Work closely with U.K. Account Managers to fully understand our customers’ needs, and then develop and present solutions at key customer meetings; Drive the internal agenda of the importance of good category management – update presentations at quarterly Northern Europe sales meetings; Build a database of knowledge and insight, from a variety of different sources, and use all of this to develop compelling category arguments; Make recommendations to senior U.K. team, regarding new areas of data and/or insight that we should be exploring to continue to drive the category management agenda; Build strong, respectful relationships with all functions in the U.K. and EMEA; Close liaison with other Category Managers within Bridor EMEA, to drive the Category Management approach across the business

Requirements

Currently working within a category position, either for a food manufacturer or one of the leading insights business such as IRI, Kantar or Nielsen; Experience within the FMCG sector is essential; Real passion for quality food products; Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills in order to build relationships internally and with customers; Organised individual with strong numeracy and analytical skills; Ambition to deliver set targets; Role is fully home based, expected to travel to customers and Bridor's UK head office in Camberley when required; Contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills of the U.K. commercial team; Provide alternative ways to view problems and situations through fact-based customer and category solutions; Respect for the standards required within the business across all functions and all aspects of the day-to-day duties