Category Planning Manager - Soft Drinks and Juice

The Soft Drinks Category Planning Manager is an integral part of the soft drink’s strategy delivery, working with several natural work streams (internal and external) to deliver strategic and sustainable growth plans. The role includes creating and owning the trade strategy for soft drinks that is specific by channel, with a clear media strategy that aligns to the individual category strategies. The role requires working closely with large FMCG businesses including Coke, Britvic, Red Bull, Highland Spring, Danone, Nestle, LRS (Lucozade / Ribena) along with many others.

The role will include leading the PGR process / the 3-year strategy which includes leading a proposition led trade strategy for drinks that also gives packaged foods a clear identity with our shoppers and within the industry. These propositions include developing the first to market soft drinks social drinks proposition in 2024 including perfect serves with our spirits team, developing a lead out functional health proposition, leading our ‘with meals’ proposition with our food teams (25% of drinks drunk are with food) and the delivery of the convenience reset.

The role will also include supporting delivery of the health plan for drinks – with the aim to lead in no sugar drinks and clean health (water hydration plan). At a macro level, the aim is to use our scale to nudge shoppers to consume more water and reduce the statistic that 4/5 people in the UK do not drink the recommended daily amount of water.

You will be responsible for:

Analysing data quickly, understand root causes to provide additional insight and take the relevant action
Use knowledge of the Customer & Market to drive great commercial decisions
Manage supplier performance, shape strategy within area of responsibility and develop trusted partnerships
Collaboratively developing focused ranges aligned to the Tesco principles with great customer appeal that hit commercial KPIs
Proactively identify, assess and manage potential business and financial risks
Understand and interpret internal and external financial information to make clear commercial led decisions
Work proactively internally and with suppliers to maximise profitability through the ideal mix of range, price & promotions across channels
Interpret data to forecast sales accurately, evaluate promotions and events and take action to improve performance
Follow the Critical Path to deliver trade, promotional, marketing and event plans for the category ensuring delivery through Retail, Trade Planning and Supply Chain team
Work across the business to bring range reviews to life for customers and stand over all digital channel communication.

You will need:

Experience:

Experience of working in a Commercial function - Category development
Demonstrate strong analytical skills and thinking

Operational skills;

Data analytics
Strategy led thinking and planning
Influencing skills

#LI - EF1

#LI - Hybrid

What's in it for you:

We’re all about the little helps. That’s why we make sure our Tesco colleague benefits package takes care of you – both in and out of work. Click Here to find out more!

Annual bonus scheme of up to 20% of base salary
Holiday starting at 25 days plus a personal day (plus Bank holidays)
Private medical insurance
26 weeks maternity and adoption leave (after 1 years’ service) at full pay, followed by 13 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Statutory Adoption Pay, we also offer 6 weeks fully paid paternity leave
Free 24/7 virtual GP service, Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for you and your family, free access to a range of experts to support your mental wellbeing

About us:

Our vision at Tesco is to become every customer's favourite way to shop, whether they are at home or out on the move. Our core purpose is 'Serving our customers, communities and planet a little better every day'. Serving means more than a transactional relationship with our customers. It means acting as a responsible and sustainable business for all stakeholders, for the communities we are part of and for the planet.

We are proud to have an inclusive culture at Tesco where everyone truly feels able to be themselves. At Tesco, we not only celebrate diversity, but recognise the value and opportunity it brings. We're committed to creating a workplace where differences are valued, and make sure that all colleagues are given the same opportunities. We're a big business with diverse working patterns and many business areas which means that we can find something that works for you. Everyone is welcome at Tesco.

We have recently announced that we will be moving towards a more blended working week – combining office and remote working. Our offices will continue to be where we connect, collaborate and innovate. Please talk to us to about how this can work for you.

NOTE: Should you be successful in your application, your offer will be subject to and conditional upon you providing your bank account details on your agreed start date.

We're proud to have been accredited Disability Confident Leader and we're committed to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process. For further information on the accessibility support we can offer, please visit https://www.tesco-careers.com/accessibility