JOB DESCRIPTION
This is an exciting opportunity for an ambitious and creative individual to lead a large, complex and significantly important category for one of the country's top retailers.
Adult Beverages at Kroger is one of the largest and most competitive Divisions nationally and will be a core focus of Kroger's growth strategy moving forwards. The organization has an ambitious and dynamic strategy and is looking for a senior leader to drive innovation, maximize the value of Adult Beverages across its markets to maximize market share and profitability across all retail channels, including in-store and e-commerce.
This role sets the long-term plan across categories, identifying risk mitigation strategies, resource allocation, and vendor management opportunities. This leader will guide the direction for assigned categories and coordinate efforts across strategic and financial initiatives for all grocery.
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Serves as a liaison between team and senior leadership, acting as champion while demonstrating the company's core values of respect, honesty, integrity, diversity inclusion, and safety.
Please contact kroger@modernexec.com for more details about the role or to express interest.
RESPONSIBILITIES
In this role, you would:
- Drive an integrated short and long-term strategy across Adult Beverage and be responsible for its collective financial performance
- Develop and implement strategic plans that focus on financial sales and profit budgets based on market trends and competitive activity that supports consumer trends and the company and division business plans and strategies
- Ensure a consistent view of the corporate strategy and balance with national brands, partner in budgeting process on transfer cost opportunities
- Serve as the Operations liaison, partnering on strategic priorities and opportunities within the department
- Serve as the Merchandising strategic partner for Supply Chain with continued collaboration and co-creation of new tools/processes for Supply Chain and Merchandising
- Oversee ongoing organizational change opportunities, including resource requests/review and job profiling as necessary
- Provide support for internal department budgeting
- Lead and coordinate category managers' efforts across strategic and financial initiatives; manage a cohesive vision
- Roll-up budgets, sales plans, and pricing architecture to meet departmental financial targets and ensure accuracy; identify areas of opportunity supported by action plans and allocate resources as necessary
- Guide assortment and plan-o-gram strategy within respective areas; tie to a unified customer experience across all channels (i.e., brick & mortar, extended aisle, digital shelf)
- Serve as category managers' representation and connection point to Merchandising leadership, senior leadership, and the rest of company (outside of directly engaged support functions), providing visibility into the day-to-day
- Hire new members and manage team talent pipeline, including succession planning
- Create development and training opportunities to upskill and address capability gaps
- Support supplier negotiations as needed
- Work on company initiatives and special programs that benefit merchandising long-term, including testing
- Push vendors to have a long-term view towards innovation and trends, surfacing white space
- Leverage scale across category managers where possible; have strategic perspective of competitive landscape and market trends
- Supervise and coach direct reports in the performance of their duties; complete performance reviews and provide feedback to direct reports
- Must be able to perform the essential job functions of this position with or without reasonable accommodation
QUALIFICATIONS
MINIMUM POSITION QUALIFICATIONS.
- 5+ years of progressive merchandising experience
- Excellent oral/written communication skills
- Proficient in Microsoft Office
- Be creative and alert to new ways of approaching tasks/processes
- Demonstrated ability to be collaborative and work with and through various stakeholders
- Strong analytical skills Highly organized and proficient at multi-tasking and prioritizing
- Proven leadership skills and ability to manage, influence and direct others
- Demonstrated proficiency in project management skills
DESIRED PREVIOUS JOB EXPERIENCE/EDUCATION.
- Bachelor's Degree
- Multi-department merchandising experience with progressive leadership experience
- Manager, coordinator or director experience in Adult Beverage
- Division sales promoter and buyer experience in Adult Beverage
- Store manager experience or department expertise in Adult Beverage
- Proficient knowledge of store operations