Category Manager

About Us:

T. Marzetti Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lancaster Colony Corporation (NASDAQ: LANC), is a manufacturer and marketer of specialty food products for the retail and foodservice markets. Our retail brands include Marzetti®, New York Bakery™ and Sister Schubert’s®, in addition to exclusive license agreements for Olive Garden® dressings, Chick-fil-A® sauces and Buffalo Wild Wings® sauces. Our foodservice business supplies many of the top restaurant chains in the United States.

Overview:

Overview: Reporting to the Customer Vice President of Sales, Strategy and Insights, the Category Manager will work with Regional Sales Managers and Broker Partners to drive business growth at key retailers across a designated geography. The Category Manager will lead category solutions that support sales initiatives resulting in mutually beneficial results for T. Marzetti and our retail customers. This position supports the retailer annual category review process providing thought leadership, market observations, and data analytics to identify distribution, pricing, shelving and merchandising opportunities.

Responsibilities:

Responsibilities:

Build and manage effective relationships with Retail Sales Account Managers, Broker Partners and Retail Buyers/Category Managers through quality communication, agility, adaptability, and timeliness.

Lead the development of compelling category review presentations, in partnership with sales and broker partners to pursue growth opportunities as it relates to new item sell in, distribution opportunities, and shelving priorities.

Assess category, shopper, and competitive trends across multiple data sources including IRI POS data, panel data, retailer shopper data, and industry/market research reports to synthesize analytics addressing category opportunities.

Ability to create custom reports as needed to support additional category review analytics, gathering insights that translate into compelling customer stories and result in actionable recommendations influencing distribution and volume growth.

Collaborate with brand marketing and sales planning as needed to provide to influence strategic direction of TMZ corporate plans based on collective understanding of category, shopper, retailer, and marketplace dynamics.

Interact with Category Management team members to share best practices, category insights, analytic approaches, tools, story-telling, and best practices.

Ability to create ad hoc reporting to support brand specific initiatives and as needed engage in broader category management monthly reporting updates.

Qualifications:

Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in business, Marketing or related field is required.

Minimum 5 years’ professional experience in consumer-packaged goods within the disciplines of category management, sales, and/or market research.

Minimum 2 years’ experience in managing customer relationships, across markets and customer class. Broker management experience preferred.

Proven functional leadership in category management, preferably as Category Advisor in a strategic account.

Highly developed problem-solving skills and fact-based solution generation.

Self-starter with a strong bias for action, desire for excellence and drive for outstanding results.

Strategic and insightful thinker with compelling story-telling abilities.

Ability to operate at both a detailed, process level and a broad, strategic level.

Navigates challenge and change with a high level of resilience, adaptability, and confidence.

Advanced fluency in IRI/Nielsen, Panel, Excel and PowerPoint.

Competencies:

Customer Focus

Strategic Mindset

Communicates Effectively

Collaborates

Drives Results

Instills Trust

Permanent