Category Manager – Premium Bakery Products

**Please note this position has now been fulfilled**

Company

Part of the privately owned Le Duff Group, Bridor is a leading supplier of premium Continental Pastries, Bread and Patisserie. The parent company, Le Duff Group, operate across 90 countries worldwide owning over 1600 bakeries and restaurants under brands such as Brioche Doree, Mimi’s Café, and La Madeleine. Within the last 10 years the Le Duff group has grown from €600m to over €2bn through organic growth and acquisition.

Bridor represents a €700m share of the parent company. Established in Brittany, France, in 1988, the business has become a recognised supplier to the Retail, Hotel, Michelin Star Restaurant, Coffee Shops and Travel sectors. Bridor has built a unique reputation in the world of gastronomy with its Le Notre range, used by some of the best chefs in the world, and is also a partner of prestigious events such as the Bocuse d’Or and the Roux Scholarship.

For over 20 years Bridor have supplied their high-quality products into the Retail, Foodservice Wholesale and End User channels within the UK. Culturally, Bridor have an excellent reputation for developing their employees and they maintain exceptional staff retention rates. Following strong growth both globally and within the UK, Bridor are looking to appoint a Category Manager to support their future growth across the Retail and Foodservice marketplaces.

Role

Reporting into the Head of UK Sales, your key responsibilities & objectives include;

  • Develop customer relationships through contribution of meaningful category insight (market, trends, products, consumers)
  • Help to deliver growth in our core categories of Viennoiserie and Bread, across own label and Bridor-branded products
  • Supporting Bridor Account Managers across Retail and Foodservice, by providing compelling category arguments, to deliver commercial targets
  • Build a bank of knowledge, data and insight, from a variety of different sources, to put Bridor at the forefront of customers minds in terms of category leadership
  • Supporting the development of the Category Management function across the EMEA region

Additional requirements;

  • Contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills of the U.K. commercial team
  • Provide alternative ways to view problems and situations, through fact-based customer and category solutions
  • Respect for the standards required within the business across all functions and all aspects of the day-to-day duties

Customer Relationships;

  • Aligning Bridor commercial objectives with the customers’ specific goals and objectives, and then delivering insight-led proposals to deliver win-win solutions
  • Drive the category review agenda within our key Retail and Foodservice customers, ensuring that Bridor are seen as the leaders in category management
  • Active participation in, and shaping the direction of Joint Business Plans with our key customers
  • Influencing the NPD agenda of our key customers – shaping briefs before they are received through the sharing of key trends and insights
  • Developing close relationships with key functions within our key customers – category planners, NPD managers, marketeers, buyers etc.
  • Become a trusted and respected member of the Bridor-Customer relationships

Internal;

  • Work closely with Bridor marketing teams, to fully understand our own strategies across Viennoiserie and Bread, and to embed these into the core of our customer proposals
  • Work closely with U.K. Account Managers to fully understand our customers’ needs, and then develop and present solutions at key customer meetings
  • Drive the internal agenda of the importance of good category management – update presentations at quarterly Northern Europe sales meetings
  • Build a database of knowledge and insight, from a variety of different sources, and use all of this to develop compelling category arguments
  • Make recommendations to senior U.K. team, regarding new areas of data and/or insight that we should be exploring to continue to drive the category management agenda
  • Build strong, respectful relationships with all functions in the U.K. and EMEA
  • Close liaison with other Category Managers within Bridor EMEA, to drive the Category Management approach across the business

Requirements

The successful candidate for this position will currently be working within a category position, either for a food manufacturer or one of the leading insights business such as; IRI, Kantar or Nielsen. Experience within the FMCG sector is essential, as well as possessing a real passion for quality food products. You will have exceptional communication and interpersonal skills in order to build relationships internally and with your customers.  You will be an organised individual with strong numeracy and analytical skills as well as possessing an ambition to deliver set targets. The role is fully home based, you will however be expected to travel to customers and Bridor’s UK head office in Camberley when required.

For further information please apply or contact our retained consultant, Aidan Goodall at FMCG Selection on Aidan@fmcgselection.co.uk or call 01943 667 280.