SUMMARY: The Category Manager develops the overall strategy for a product category and research new product options to drive sales and achieve targets. They are responsible for purchasing all of the lines in the assigned category.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Purchasing

• Purchase all lines in assigned category.
• Responsible for approximately 1,500 stock items from approximately 120-125 vendors.
• Forecast sales volume to maximize inventory turns.

• Category Strategy

• Develop strategies for new or updated products based on customer demand and product trends.
• Works with the marketing team and sales to promote products.
• Builds industry partnerships to promote a category's products.
• Develops a category strategy to reduce costs and increase product sales.
• Analyze market trends and apply this knowledge to make insightful buying decisions.

• Manage Inventory

• Monitors inventory levels, procures additional stock, and develops strategies for working with sales, brokers, marketing, and manufacturers to get rid of excess or unwanted inventory.
• Helps to optimize warehouse storage for products.
• Creates regular reports on product availability.

• Monitor Performance

• Monitors the performance of both individual products and category overall.
• Uses available data to determine the best- and worst-performing products, create profit and loss statements, and assesses performance against competitors.
• Assess their product and category strategies and develop solutions to improve performance.

• Handle Vendor Contracts

• Evaluates vendor performance, quality, and costs.
• Chooses the best suppliers for the category's products.
• Negotiate deals, promotional and food show allowances, and manufacturer support to ensure prices and products are competitive.
• Communicates marketing requirements to the Marketing department.
• Monitors vendors' adherence to contractual terms throughout the relationship.

• Lead Employees

• Working with a cross-functional team of marketing, procurement, and sales professionals, provides leadership to execute the category's strategies throughout the organization to achieve company goals.
• Inform team members of category and product goals, assigns roles and responsibilities, and works together to drive performance.

SKILLS REQUIRED:

• Must have previous purchasing experience.
• Must have strong decision-making and people management skills.
• Must understand the product life cycle and how to turn their product ideas into goods that are efficiently made available or delivered to customers.
• Must be organized.
• Must be a self-starter who requires limited day-to-day direction.
• Must be able to apply financial analysis techniques to analyze reports, determine product and category performance, and seek ways to cut costs and improve sales.
• Must be a strong negotiator who can persuade vendors to offer better contract terms.
• Must have strong analytical skills.
• Experience in supplier management software. Experience in E3/Blue Yonder a plus.
• Experience in enterprise resource planning software.
• Experience in productivity software (Microsoft Office).

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE:

• A bachelor's degree in business or supply chain management or the equivalent experience.
• At least 5 years of experience in a category management role.
• A food service distributor background is a plus, but not required.
  DESCRIPTION OF EMPLOYER: Founded in 1901, Feeser's, Inc. is a family owned and operated full-line foodservice distributor located in Harrisburg, PA servicing the Mid-Atlantic region. Feeser's provides an expansive offering of dry, refrigerated, and frozen products to a diverse customer base comprised of restaurants, healthcare facilities, educational facilities, and other institutions.