Retail Category Manager at Sasol

Purpose of Job

• Manage complex product portfolio nationally through strategic planning and ongoing product and pricing management, aligning product range offering to customer needs, and overseeing retail pricing architecture and tactics to secure they meet overall business objectives. Handle the interface between convenience suppliers and Sasol Group energy by sourcing and managing external suppliers in line with the preferred supplier strategy (i.e. negotiating trading terms, promotions, sales, and advertising rebates). Implement marketing strategy in alignment with business strategy and coordinate marketing efforts to support the achievement of business targets through the application of new initiatives to attract new and existing customers.

Key Accountabilities

• Meet and exceed targeted growths for complete financial year through innovative category and marketing initiatives whilst maintaining operational and legislative requirements.
• Develop strategies to meet evolving needs of consumers while maintaining and enhancing franchisee profitability.
• Devise new concepts to penetrate new or existing markets.
• Contribute to exploration of potential strategic partnerships.
• Meet set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) targets (e.g. budget, turnover, margin optimisation, and ROI).
• Drive and create category growths and strategies.
• Establish and implement a commercially viable category strategy.
• Manage supplier performance and guarantee that listed suppliers comply with the relevant legislation and food safety regulation.
• Review supplier balance scorecard and industry benchmarks and work with suppliers to agree on tactics to achieve targets (e.g. sales per outlet relative competitive position).
• Source product in support of the C-Store and category strategies through effective supplier & profit mngmt.
• Negotiate price, promotional deals, and new lines, taking into account price tiering, segmentation, financial targets.
• Understand price position with customer price perception, KVI price strategy, and competitor pricing. Monitor local and international trends/competitor activity and formulate action plans to counter as well as category performances in line with product range, price, location.
• Verify that all franchisees comply with prescribed operational duties.
• Develop & communicate of procedures, proc, legislation, and systems.
• Coordinate training session for franchisees, franchise staff, internal stakeholders.
• Negotiate trading terms on a yearly basis with each supplier.
• Liaise with procurement and legal to negotiate new contracts.
• Guarantee that data contracts are in place for suppliers.
• Establish annual promotional plan for both national and regional drives in line with the convenience strategy and category tactics.
• Confirm that promotions are agreed on between suppliers and category manager with clear targets, milestones, activities set.
• Cooperate with the marketing team to approve point of sale elements.
• Ascertain that suppliers are sufficiently stocked for promotions and that deals are loaded timeously by the supplier.
• Conduct category specific post promotional analysis and assure that promotional billings and recoveries are up to date.
• Discover and adopt new ways of driving category growth that differentiates Sasol Group from competitors.
• Coordinate with category captains to find optimal product mix that addresses profitability, margins, and other relevant aspects.
• Approve and sign off store layouts with convenience manager based on site segmentation.
• Communicate the planogram to the franchise network.
• Execute the planogram roll out to the network & review planograms on a 6-monthly basis.
• Monitor planogram compliance and implement corrective action where necessary.
• Guarantee that the systems administrator updates relevant category data, promotions, pricing, listing as requested. Liaise with information mngmt on projects, innovation, roll-out, and testing.
• Apply evidence-based SHE practices in alignment with set stds for safe operations.
• Implement Sasol Group’s risk philosophy and enterprise risk mngmt framework.
• Build & maintain positive relationships with relevant internal and external stakeholders to achieve results.
• Continuously improve own skills and knowledge.
• Complete, implement & track personal development plan to attain personal performance goals.
• Manage team performance & development formally and informally based on std practices in use across Sasol Group.
• Identify and activate learning as req based on individual and collective needs.
• Nurture a team spirit and openness towards feedback, collaboration, knowledge sharing, innovation.

Formal Education

• University Bachelor’s Degree

Working Experience

• Experience: 6+ relevant years