Category Specialist

Denholm Associates; Glasgow; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Denholm Associates is seeking a commercially minded Category Manager for a well-established spirits business. You will shape category thinking, engage customers, and drive growth across leading brands.

Partner with Sales and Marketing to own category insights, build persuasive sell-in decks, and translate market data into actionable recommendations. Flexible between full-time and part-time arrangements, with strong analytical and storytelling skills essential.

Qualifications

• Experience in Category Management, Category Development or Category Insights within FMCG.
• Ability to translate data into compelling customer stories and actionable recommendations.
• Strong PowerPoint and Excel skills with a data-driven mindset.

Responsibilities

• Create engaging category presentations and customer-facing sell-in decks that bring opportunities to life.
• Analyse market, shopper and customer data to identify trends, risks and growth opportunities.
• Build compelling category stories that support commercial conversations and customer partnerships.
• Utilise data sources including Nielsen, Circana, CGA, Assosia, IWSR or similar.
• Develop reporting tools and dashboards to track category and brand performance.
• Support customer reviews, range recommendations and category planning activity.
• Act as the category expert within the business, helping commercial teams leverage insights to drive growth.
• Translate complex data into clear, actionable recommendations for internal and external stakeholders.

Skills

Category Management

FMCG

Data storytelling

PowerPoint

Excel

Stakeholder engagement

Tools

Nielsen

Circana

CGA

Assosia

IWSR

Job description

We're looking for a commercially minded Category professional who loves turning data into compelling customer stories. If you're experienced in building insight-led category decks, identifying growth opportunities and influencing commercial decisions through data, we'd love to hear from you.

We're working with a well-established business in the spirits sector that is looking to appoint a Category Manager to help shape category thinking, strengthen customer engagement and support commercial growth across a portfolio of leading brands.

This is a highly visible role where you'll partner closely with Sales and Marketing teams, taking ownership of category insights, building persuasive category sell-in decks and translating market data into clear, actionable recommendations.

Key Responsibilities

• Create engaging category presentations and customer-facing sell-in decks that bring opportunities to life.
• Analyse market, shopper and customer data to identify trends, risks and growth opportunities.
• Build compelling category stories that support commercial conversations and customer partnerships.
• Utilise a range of insight sources including Nielsen, Circana, CGA, Assosia, IWSR or similar.
• Develop reporting tools and dashboards to track category and brand performance.
• Support customer reviews, range recommendations and category planning activity.
• Act as the category expert within the business, helping commercial teams leverage insights to drive growth.
• Translate complex data into clear, actionable recommendations for both internal and external stakeholders.
• Previous experience in Category Management, Category Development or Category Insights within FMCG.
• Strong track record of developing category decks and delivering impactful customer presentations.
• Hands-on approach with a willingness to dig into the detail and build recommendations from the data.
• Highly analytical with strong commercial awareness and storytelling ability.
• Experience working with syndicated data sources such as Nielsen, Circana, CGA or equivalent.
• Confident influencing and engaging stakeholders across multiple functions.
• Advanced PowerPoint and Excel skills.
• Food, drink or consumer goods experience would be advantageous.

This is an excellent opportunity to join an ambitious business where category is recognised as a key commercial function. You'll play an important role in shaping customer conversations, influencing strategy and helping drive sustainable growth through actionable category insight. We will consider both full-time and part-time candidates for this role.