Category Specialist

Red Bull Distribution Company; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 480,000 - 720,000; Full time

Job summary

Red Bull South Africa is seeking a Category & Shopper Expert to own the category blueprint across national retail and on-premise channels, partnering with national accounts, sales leaders and customers to drive range, space, pricing and execution.

The role combines analytics of NielsenIQ, retailer data and shopper insights to deliver regular reviews, actionable recommendations and category solutions that support growth, space optimization and in-store impact.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3-5 years experience in Category, Insights analyses or Key Account sales in FMCG.
• Ability to draw insights from multiple complex data sources.
• Excellent analytical skills to provide useful, actionable tools.
• Experience with syndicated data (Nielsen & IRI), Nielsen Panel (homescan).
• Customer facing experience and travel up to 25%.

Responsibilities

• Build trusted relationships with National Account teams and customers.
• Lead category conversations and reviews with fact-based recommendations.
• Identify opportunities across range, space, location, pricing, promotions and execution.
• Translate recommendations into clear actions for sales and merchandising teams.

Skills

Category management

Insights analysis

Key account sales

Stakeholder management

Tools

JDA

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

• Organization: Red Bull South Africa (PTY) LTD.
• Job type: Permanent

Company Description

Our goal is to be known as the thought leader when it comes to all topics Category and Shopper.

The Category specialist will play an integral role in building, developing and maintaining credible, long-term relationships with Red Bull’s retail partners.

Reporting to the Category Manager, the Category Specialist owns the account- and channel-level category blueprint across retail and gas, including planograms, ranging and space recommendations, category solutions, and category captaincy materials.

The role combines shopper, customer and performance data to build credible recommendations that help retail partners grow the Energy and wider Beverage category, and equip Sales teams to win space, distribution and execution.

Job Description

CATEGORY & SHOPPER EXPERT

• Build trusted working relationships with National Account teams, Sales leaders and priority customers.
• Support and, where appropriate, lead category conversations and reviews with customers, using fact-based recommendations that balance total-category growth, shopper needs.
• Contribute to customer business planning and joint business plans by identifying clear opportunities across range, space, location, availability, pricing, promotions and execution.
• Translate recommendations into clear actions for Key Account Managers, field sales, merchandising teams and customer stakeholders.

INSIGHTS, ANALYTICS & CATEGORY REVIEWS

• Analyse NielsenIQ or equivalent syndicated data, retailer scan and loyalty data, shopper research, market demographics, internal sales data and execution measures.
• Track category size, growth, share, distribution, rate of sale, price, promotion, innovation, competitor activity and shopper behaviour to identify risks and opportunities.
• Produce regular category reviews and account-specific recommendations that explain what is happening, why it is happening and what action should follow.
• Partner with the Insights team on shopper and channel research, ensuring findings are translated into category and execution choices.
• Act as an internal category subject-matter resource, sharing relevant trends, tools and recommendations across the commercial organisation.

TURN INSIGHTS INTO CATEGORY SOLUTIONS & IN-STORE EXECUTION

• Develop and scale repeatable, insight-led solutions such as Beverage Zones, Energy Zones, impulse executions and cross-merchandising solutions.
• Tailor solutions by customer, store format and channel.
• Identify white-space opportunities and convert them into defined propositions with an execution standard and commercial rationale.
• Partner with POS, Trade Marketing and Field Sales to ensure solutions are practical, customer-ready and implemented to the agreed Look of Success.
• Support pilots, evaluate results and codify winning approaches for broader rollout.

SPACE MANAGEMENT EXPERT

• Be a key consultant in the development, maintenance and governance of customer and channel planograms for the Energy and Beverage category.
• Apply clear principles for assortment, SKU productivity, share of space, shelf flow, adjacency, pack architecture, shelf position and points of interruption.
• Use retailer data, syndicated scan data and shopper insights to recommend optimal ranges and space allocation by store format, cluster, account and channel.
• Monitor planogram compliance and execution quality with Sales and merchandising teams, identifying gaps and corrective actions.
• Maintain accessible, version-controlled planogram libraries and supporting guidance for internal teams and retail partners.

TURNING INSIGHTS INTO ACTION

• Identify key opportunities for Red Bull and educate the field team on how to capitalize on these opportunities through training days.
• Further equip the field team to action in trade in form of insights one-pagers that help sell in shelf space allocation of category and Red Bull, new item listings, disruptive display placements, additional cooler placements and other identified category opportunities.
• Support category team in managing and planning the annual “retailer meets shopper” conference, giving our retailers the competitive edge through understanding the latest shopper and retail trends through a day of influential speakers.
• Training of retailer’s broader teams on Category management through training days in order to further position ourselves as the category & shopper experts.

Qualifications

Minimum 3-5 years experience in Category, Insights analyses or Key Account sales in the FMCG industry.

This highly analytical, organized, and self-motivated individual must have the ability to draw insights from multiple complex data sources.

Excellent analytical skills are needed not only to evaluate, but to provide useful, actionable tools that are clear, meaningful, and delivered in a timely manner.

Experience working with syndicated data (Nielsen & IRI), Nielsen Panel (homescan) and shopper metrics.

Customer facing experience a must; travels up to 25% of the time working with retailers.

Familiar with Planogram software, such as JDA is an asset.

Highly proficient in Microsoft Office, especially Excel and PowerPoint.

In-depth knowledge of the FMCG industry and South African Retail Industry.

Strong project management and planning competencies.

Strong communication and stakeholder management skills are required to express analytics and deliver presentations to various levels in the organization.

Additional Information

This job description is not exhaustive of the potential duties that the successful applicant will be required to perform, and is provided solely to assist potential job applicants in determining their suitability for the role and to apply for the job. It is not an offer of employment and Red Bull is under no obligation to hire an applicant who submits an application.

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