Pastry & Bakery Category Lead

Bidfood Malaysia Sdn. Bhd; Shah Alam; On-site; MYR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Bidfood Malaysia Sdn Bhd is expanding its pastry and bakery categories and seeking a driven Category Manager. You will own the pastry portfolio strategy, drive pricing, supplier partnerships, and cross-functional collaboration to deliver category growth across Malaysia.

Responsibilities include leading launches, forecasting, and demand planning while ensuring food safety and Halal compliance. Travel within Malaysia is expected; strong business acumen and stakeholder management are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or Diploma in Business, Marketing, Food Science, Culinary Arts, Pastry, or related field.
• Minimum 5–8 years’ experience in category management, sales, purchasing, product development, or culinary application in pastry/bakery/foodservice.
• Strong commercial acumen with experience managing sales, margins, portfolios and supplier relationships.
• Knowledge of pastry and bakery products, food safety standards, and market trends.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and interpersonal skills.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office; ERP SAP experience is an advantage.
• Willingness to travel within Malaysia.

Responsibilities

• Build annual category and brand growth plans aligned with commercial objectives.
• Define portfolio, channel, positioning, and route-to-market priorities; onboarding/rationalization for CCO approval.
• Track market trends, competitor activities, customer needs, and white-space opportunities.
• Work with Sales to identify category penetration opportunities and translate insights into growth actions.
• Build and maintain supplier relationships, including joint business plans and performance reviews.
• Lead portfolio direction and product sourcing while ensuring food safety, Halal, allergen-labelling, cold-chain, and company requirements.
• Lead base pricing, margin architecture, inventory targets, and activation planning; monitor sales, margin, stock turns, shelf life, wastage.
• Develop and table commercial, pricing, portfolio, and activation proposals to the CCO for approval.
• Equip Sales with the right products, USPs, pricing guardrails, product knowledge, and commercial tools.
• Lead product launch and activation plans, including tastings and demonstrations; Sales leads negotiations.
• Co-own forecasting and demand planning with Sales, Purchasing, Supply Chain and Warehouse teams.
• Support customer-specific opportunities and present category performance, risks, and actions to management.

Skills

Communication

Negotiation

Interpersonal skills

Microsoft Office

ERP SAP

Education

Bachelor’s degree or Diploma in Business, Marketing, Food Science, Culinary Arts, Pastry, or related field

Tools

Microsoft Office

SAP

Job description

Bidfood Malaysia Sdn Bhd is expanding its pastry and bakery categories and seeking a driven Category Manager. You will own the pastry portfolio strategy, drive pricing, supplier partnerships, and cross-functional collaboration to deliver category growth across Malaysia.

Responsibilities include leading launches, forecasting, and demand planning while ensuring food safety and Halal compliance. Travel within Malaysia is expected; strong business acumen and stakeholder management are essential.