Assistant Category Manager (Tgn5575) - Excellent Salary Doe

Location: Manchester

Type: Permanent

Industry: Licensed Products

Job Ref: TGN5575

T he Company:

We are looking for a highly organised, commercially focused Assistant Category Manager to support the delivery and development of a successful product category. Working closely with the wider buying, merchandising, design and supply teams, you will play a key role in range building, product development, pricing, critical path management and trade activity.

Supporting the Category Manager to deliver a pipeline of new products for customer selection.

maintaining required administration accurately and completely.

The role requires strong attention to detail, commercial awareness and the ability to manage multiple product ranges, suppliers, price points and deadlines simultaneously.

Benefits:

Hybrid working – 3 days in the office a week.

responsibilities

• Support the Category Manager and Buying team with range building
• Manage and maintain Range Plans, ensuring product, pricing, supplier and critical path information is accurate and up to date.
• Support the development of ranges working with both UK and FOB suppliers
• Brief Designers and other relevant teams on product and packaging requirements
• Manage development range plans, tracking multiple price points, product developments and key milestones
• Coordinate development samples, ensuring samples are received, reviewed and managed through to final sign-off
• Conduct regular competitive shopping and benchmarking (comp shops) to understand competitor pricing, product offers and market activity
• Complete frequent price benchmarks and contribute to discussions around pricing structures and recommended price actions
• Monitor and support pricing actions across key/high-cover lines, identifying opportunities and risks
• Track and maintain multiple prices across UK and FOB lines, ensuring pricing information remains accurate
• Support weekly trade activity
• Coordinate actions such as price drops, rebuys and end-of-line activity
• Maintain accurate and timely updates across systems and range planning tools
• Manage and monitor the critical path across product development and production
• Track lead times and proactively identify risks to shipment dates
• Work closely with UK and FOB
• Follow up on samples, approvals, production milestones and shipping requirements

Key Skills

• Experience within buying, merchandising, category management, product development or a related retail environment
• Strong commercial awareness with an understanding of pricing, competitor activity and customer expectations
• Excellent organisational and time-management skills, with the ability to manage multiple ranges and deadlines simultaneously
• Strong attention to detail and confidence working with large amounts of product, pricing and supplier data
• Experience managing critical paths, product development and supplier timelines
• Confident communicating with internal stakeholders and external suppliers
• Strong Excel and systems skills, with the ability to maintain accurate range plans and track complex information
• Proactive approach, with the ability to identify issues and take action before they impact key deadlines
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, commercially driven environment

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