Buying Categories - Data Analyst at Food Lovers Market - Head Office

Food Lover's Market Holdings; Wes-Kaap; On-site; ZAR 200 000 - 300 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading retail group in South Africa is seeking a Buying Category Analyst to generate insights on ambient and perishable category performance. The ideal candidate will have over 5 years' FMCG experience and a degree in business or analytics. Responsibilities include analyzing sales data, developing actionable insights, and communicating findings effectively. The role requires strong skills in Excel, SQL, and data visualization tools like Power BI, along with a structured approach to managing tasks in a fast-paced environment.

Benefits

Provident fund

Colleague Discount

Qualifications

• 5+ years' FMCG (retail) experience in buying or category management.
• Strong analytical skills to evaluate sales data and market share.
• Ability to manage and prioritize multiple tasks effectively.

Responsibilities

• Generate insights on category performance for operational strategies.
• Analyze sales across products and identify growth opportunities.
• Develop reports and dashboards to communicate KPIs.

Skills

Data analysis

Communication skills

Logical thinking

Team collaboration

Time management

Education

Bachelor's degree in business, analytics, or computer science

Tools

MS Excel

SQL

Power BI

Power Platform

SSRS

Job description

Summary Of Responsibilities

Food Lover's Market Retail division consists of almost 100 Food Lover's Market stores in sub-Saharan Africa, which includes six Food Lover's Eateries. The retail division also includes 32 Diamond Discount Liquors and Market Liquors stores, 10 Distribution Centres, two meat packing, and five production facilities.

Within this context, the buying category analyst will be required to generate insights to understand ambient and perishable (excl. fruit & veg, meat) category performance in the retail environment with insights for the operational team. This role will help drive strategic decisions with the Buying team, to explore product and supplier opportunities through increased sales and margin, optimisation and customer satisfaction.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in business, analytics, computer science, or a related field.
• 5+ years' FMCG (retail) experience in a similar capacity, buying or category management.

Key Requirements

• Understand documented and verbally communicated requirements, system constraints and stakeholder concerns.
• Analysing sales data across various products, categories, and regions to identify trends, growth opportunities, and underperforming areas.
• Analysing product portfolio to determine which SKUs to retain, remove, or optimize based on performance metrics.
• Tracking and analysing market share data to assess competitive positioning and effectiveness of marketing strategies with our suppliers.
• Evaluating the success of new product launches and providing insights on areas of improvement.
• Logic validation and ensuring the accuracy, consistency and reliability of data and its reporting.
• Developing reports and dashboards that track KPIs and communicate effectively with stakeholders to assess business and buyer performance.

Person Spec

Successful candidates will have good logical, analytical and investigative skills, be results oriented and self-motivated and above all, enjoy working with and analysing data.

In Addition, The Following Is Required

• Strong MS Excel, SQL, SSRS, Power Platform skills
• Data visualization with Power BI
• Understanding of retail industry dynamics
• Strong written and verbal communication skills to present findings and recommendations to stakeholders.
• Good, structured documentation skills e.g. process or data flow diagrams, spreadsheets, other diagramming tools.
• Time management and planning skills - ability to prioritise a high volume of tasks simultaneously in a fast-paced unpredictable environment. Identify the important tasks and prioritise to ensure on time delivery.
• Demonstrates a structured and methodical way of working, with the ability to cope with competing demands and effectively prioritise tasks.
• Demonstrated experience in handling large data sets and relational databases.
• Strong team player.
• A bias towards action.

Desired Skills

• Time management
• planning
• Written and Verbal Communication
• Documentation

Desired Work Experience

• 5 to 10 years Retail

Desired Qualification Level

• Degree

Employer & Job Benefits

• Provident fund
• Colleague Discount