Private Label and Exclusive Brands Category Manager

Dis-Chem Pharmacies; Midrand; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Dis-Chem Pharmacies in South Africa seeks a Private Label and Exclusive Brands Category Manager to drive performance and development of private label products across categories. You will translate strategy into concrete category plans, lead the innovation pipeline, and ensure portfolio profitability while guiding a category team and coordinating with stakeholders to deliver value to customers.

The role requires strategic thinking, strong leadership, and the ability to manage complex product

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Supply Chain, or a related field.
• 5-7 years’ experience in private label, FMCG brand management, or product development leadership.
• Experience in managing category-level brand portfolios and driving commercial performance.

Responsibilities

• Own private label and exclusive brands commercial performance, including sales growth, margin delivery, and portfolio profitability.
• Define and lead the private label and exclusive brands’ strategy, portfolio architecture, and growth priorities across categories.
• Identify opportunities for innovation, range expansion, and customer value creation within private label and exclusive brands.
• Provide guidance and direction to the Private Label Brand Manager, ensuring effective execution of category plans.
• Ensure cross-functional alignment to support product development, launch planning and category growth.

Skills

Category management

Private label

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business

Job description

The Private Label and Exclusive Brands Category Manager drives the performance and development of private label and exclusive brands. The role translates the strategic direction set by the Private Label and Exclusive Brands Head into actionable category plans, ensuring the portfolio delivers competitive, innovative, and profitable products. The role manages category-level portfolio performance, oversees the execution of the product innovation pipeline, and ensures private label and exclusive brands remain relevant, differentiated and commercially competitive.

Minimum Requirements…

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Supply Chain, or a related field OR
• 5-7 years’ experience in private label, FMCG brand management, or product development leadership.
• Experience in managing category-level brand portfolios and driving commercial performance.

Advantageous:

• Leadership experience

Job Specification…

Strategy and value delivery

• Own private label and exclusive brands commercial performance, including sales growth, margin delivery, and portfolio profitability.
• Define and lead the private label and exclusive brands’ strategy, portfolio architecture, and growth priorities across categories.
• Identify opportunities for innovation, range expansion, and customer value creation within private label and exclusive brands.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Provide guidance and direction to the Private Label Brand Manager, ensuring effective execution of category plans.
• Ensure cross-functional alignment to support product development, launch planning and category growth.
• Support the Private Label and Exclusive Brands Head in driving portfolio performance and brand development across categories.

Governance & Risk

• Ensure private label and exclusive brands within the category comply with quality, regulatory and governance standards.
• Ensure commercial discipline in pricing, margin tracking and product availability.

Key Competencies

• Strong commercial and category management capability
• Ability to translate strategic direction into practical category execution
• Strong collaboration and stakeholder management skills
• Strong understanding of brand and product development

Special conditions of employment:

Key performance indicators:

• Private label growth and profitability - Sales growth and margin contribution within assigned categories, penetration within categories.
• Innovation and portfolio performance - Successful execution of category innovation pipeline, product launch success rate and time-to-market.
• Portfolio optimisation - Range performance and contribution to overall category growth.
• Improvement in team culture score.