Associate Category Manager

Mars; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 86,000 - 113,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company bonus

Job summary

Mars is seeking an Associate Category Manager for the Pet Nutrition Business. The role focuses on understanding the category, delivering insights, and advising retail partners through analysis of sales, promotions, assortment, and shelving strategies.

Collaboration with teams and external partners is key, with guidance from a Team Lead and flexibility for remote work. The position emphasizes analytics, relationship building, and planogram execution with tools like JDA ProSpace and

Qualifications

• University degree in Business or related field.
• 1-3 years CPG industry experience with grocery/drug/mass channels.
• Excellent analytical skills and ability to translate data into strategies for retail partners.
• Ability to build relationships and influence decisions using data.
• In-store and/or customer experience and understanding of category solutions.
• Advanced Excel and PowerPoint skills.
• Category Management experience is an asset.
• Nielsen data analysis and Numerator insights experience are assets.
• Shelf management software knowledge (JDA ProSpace or similar) is an asset.
• Retailer POS systems experience is an asset.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain strong relationships with key retail partners.
• Monitor performance and address issues to maintain high standards.
• Establish reputation as a category thought leader.
• Conduct ongoing category analysis and derive insights to support growth.
• Develop recommendations using local and global insights for retail partners.
• Perform assortment analysis and advise on items not carried that perform well.
• Draw planograms for store formats to drive shelf quality and availability.
• Participate in annual strategic planning with retail partners.
• Ensure compliance with retailer policies, regulations, and standards.

Skills

Analytical skills

Data interpretation

Relationship building

In-store/customer experience

Excel

PowerPoint

Category Management

Nielsen data

Numerator insights

Shelf management software

POS systems

Education

University degree in Business or related field

Tools

JDA ProSpace

Job description

Job Description:

The Associate Category Manager in the Pet Nutrition Business is accountable for the understanding and analysis of the category and providing objective, strategic, and tactical category insights and recommendations to retail partners. You will be actively involved in identifying opportunities, including analyzing sales performance, promotional activities, item assortment, and shelving strategy and execution. You will also provide best-in-class examples and insights from the global category community and other available assets. You will be responsible for external communication with key retail partners, supporting ad hoc requests, ongoing reporting, strategy reviews, shelf planning and creation, and insight generation using current tools and other industry resources. You will report to the Team Lead. This role is based in Bolton with regular in-office collaboration expected. Flexibility is a key enabler- empowering associates to make choices that support both business outcomes and personal needs, including remote work.

What are we looking for?

• University degree in Business or a related field
• Minimum 1-3 years CPG industry experience with knowledge of grocery/drug/mass channels
• Excellent analytical skills and the ability to interpret data from a mix of data sources, translate insights into relevant strategies and tactics (actions/initiatives) and execute with retail partners in a clear, simple and engaging way
• Ability to build effective relations and influence decisions, having the confidence to use data to reinforce your opinions
• In-store and/or Customer experience and understanding of how to develop engaging and actionable category solutions
• Advanced Excel skills and PowerPoint skills
• Category Management experience an asset
• Nielsen data analysis and Numerator insights experience an asset
• Shelf Management software (JDA ProSpace or similar) knowledge an asset
• Retailer POS systems experience an asset

What will be your key responsibilities?

Customer Relationship Management

• Develop and maintain strong relationships with key retail partners
• Monitor performance and address issues promptly to maintain high standards.
• Establish reputation as a category thought leader

Analysis & Planogram Planning

• Conducting ongoing analysis of the category and support in deriving insights from the analysis
• Develop recommendations to support category growth
• Leverage local and global insights and best practices to provide actionable strategies for retail partners
• Conduct assortment analysis to provide recommendations on items not carried by the retailer that perform well in the marketplace
• Draw planograms for various store formats and sizes to drive shelf quality and availability excellence, leveraging JDA

Strategic Planning and Execution

• Participate in annual strategic planning with retail partners
• Ensure compliance with retailer policies, industry regulations, and quality standards

What can you expect from Mars?

• Work with diverse and talented Associates, all guided by the Five Principles.
• Join a purpose driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.
• A strong focus on learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.
• An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.

The base pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between the below range CAD 86,444.00 - CAD 113,458.00. Please note: This job posting is for an existing vacancy. AI is used as a supporting tool in our recruitment process.