Category Growth Leader & Merchandising Strategist

Landmark Group; United Arab Emirates; On-site; AED 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Landmark Group in the United Arab Emirates seeks a Category Manager to drive growth and profitability across assigned product lines. You will lead category planning, pricing and promotions, manage vendor relationships, and oversee design and quality decisions.

The role emphasizes in-season stock management, margins, and cross-territory execution. You will collaborate with Merchandising, Design and Buying teams to align plans with budgets and market trends while optimising inventory and supplier

Responsibilities

• Drive sales from the assigned category by developing comprehensive category business plans
• Drive and monitor gross margins for the category and ensure alignment with the organization’s position, business plan and budgets.
• Prepare annual plans for the assigned category and provide inputs to the Merchandising Development and Buying Head to assist in creation of overall merchandizing budget
• Study trends from historical data around product category sales and market research to assist in the overall planning process
• Ensure adherence to financial plan in all key areas - sales, markdowns, margin & average inventory
• Discuss, decide and freeze the merchandise plans (pricing, promotion, assortment etc.) for the category with the Merchandise Planning department
• Ensure effective in season management across territories (stock balancing, markdown management, stock analysis, stock vs sales performance)
• Ensure optimum utilization of customer research information to guide category management decisions, including decisions on the introduction of new products, product assortment, shelf layout, promotion and pricing of products in the store
• Formulate design and development plan in consultation with the Design Head with specifications on product features, functions, packaging and resource requirement across categories
• Ensure all design and development activities are carried out within budget
• Ensure the merchandise procured and received meets the quality standards
• Create an adequate vendor base for the organization through active scouting and negotiation / renegotiation
• Maintain relationships with key vendors who are critical for the long term success of the business
• Review the financial and credit services agreement with the key vendors in order to maximize profit and positively contribute to cash flow
• Determine buying requirements and formulate buying plan and budget for the assigned category
• Monitor Orders based on the buying plan and follow-up to ensure merchandise delivery as per the plan based on the agreed service level agreement
• Pursue cost reduction measures through centralized bulk buying and/ or selecting appropriate vendor mix, scanning the environment for benchmarks and constantly improving the purchase process
• Monitor team development and facilitate complaint resolution
• Set KRA's for direct reports and conduct performance appraisal
• Oversee staff deployment and drive motivation levels of the direct reportees.
• Acquiring market intelligence through various sources & analyze trends which may impact our business.
• Map competition prices / products and provide qualitative inputs to the business

Job description

Landmark Group in the United Arab Emirates seeks a Category Manager to drive growth and profitability across assigned product lines. You will lead category planning, pricing and promotions, manage vendor relationships, and oversee design and quality decisions.

The role emphasizes in-season stock management, margins, and cross-territory execution. You will collaborate with Merchandising, Design and Buying teams to align plans with budgets and market trends while optimising inventory and supplier