Category Manager - Sam's Club

Build your career at Sazerac! With almost 400 years of rich history, Sazerac Company has thrived as an independent, American family-owned company with operations in the United States and around the world. Since the 2000s, Sazerac has averaged double digit growth every year! Sazerac Company produces and markets the most award-winning bourbons and whiskeys in the world, including Buffalo Trace, Pappy Van Winkle, Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, and Sazerac Rye. Additionally, Sazerac owns many popular brands across a range of spirits, including Fireball, Southern Comfort, Seagram’s V.O., Myers’s, Goldschläger, Parrot Bay, 99 Brand, and Platinum Vodka. 

We’re proud of our award-winning culture and distilleries. Our Louisville office has been named one of the “Best Places to Work in Kentucky” four times, and our Buffalo Trace Distillery has earned the title of “world’s most award-winning distillery” through the dedication of our craftsmen for well over 200 years. Whether you’re a recent graduate or an experienced professional, Sazerac provides extraordinary opportunities for growth with competitive salaries and benefits in an exciting, entrepreneurial industry.

Job Description/Responsibilities

The Category Manager will serve as Sam’s Club’s unbiased category advisor by providing best-in-class category insights and actionable assortment recommendations to support category growth.  This person will be responsible for analyzing & synthesizing various data sources, highlighting key findings, and recommending solutions to Sam’s Club.  The category manager acts as the main point of contact for the Sam’s Club merchant team and will work closely with the Sam’s Club merchants to analyze the business and proactively identify opportunities through syndicated data, shopper insights, category strategy, and industry trends. 

• Deliver fully integrated consumer, category, and market insights to guide Sam’s Club’s strategic choices and tactical actions, to drive market-leading growth.
• Proactively provide analytics using all Category Management capabilities like planogram software, data tools, and data visualization tools to drive business opportunities and develop actionable recommendations.
• Develop and foster, through timely and professional communication, business relationships with Sam’s Club’s key contacts that establish Sazerac as a lead source for all category strategy needs
• Generate regular reporting to quickly identify opportunities and deliver solutions
• Provide ad-hoc category management reporting, trend analysis, customized reports, and special project work directly to internal/external leaders
• Perform regular in-market work to evaluate the effectiveness of plan implementation & identify retail volume/profit opportunities.
• Develop modular/merchandising strategies and ensure timely and accurate modular and feature execution.
• Provide category, channel, and shopper insights to the Sam’s merchandising team through Industry sales & Madrid data aligning with their strategy & business goals
• Leads Sam’s Club category support with tools, insights, and compelling consumer/trade rationales to support fact-based presentations based on sales, velocities, pricing, distribution, product, and promotion analysis.
• Direct communication and partnership with Sam’s Club buyers on a daily basis.
• Employ strategic thinking to recognize and anticipate issues/opportunities by elevating analyses beyond simple reporting into actionable recommendations.
• Establish well-organized priorities for yourself and define roles when leading initiatives & projects. Document project workflow when establishing new, best-practice project workflows to facilitate future training and scalability of the process for the team and organization.

Salary range - $114,847 - $172,271

*Placement within the salary range is calculated based upon years of directly relatable experience for the position.

Qualifications/Requirements

MUST

• Bachelor's Degree
• 5-10 years of Consumer Package Goods (CPG) Experience in category management.
• Demonstrated ability to build collaborative partnerships with retail customers and internal cross-functional teams
• Experience analyzing retailer data and presenting recommendations to leadership and merchandising teams – Madrid data experience is strongly preferred
• Skillfully leverages multiple data sources and incorporates Sam’s Club strategy and buyer feedback to build growth-driving category recommendations
• Ability to interact confidently and collaborate effectively with Sam’s Club buying team
• Strategic mindset and the ability to define steps needed to grow the category in both the short and long-term
• Proficiency in JDA/Space Planning tools
• Proven ability to navigate and process large datasets to produce actionable insights
• Strong sense of curiosity and willingness to adopt/learn new approaches
• Exceptional organization, prioritization, & project management skills
• Excellent critical thinking skills, initiative, attention to detail, and creativity
• Excellent analytical, interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills
• Advanced Expertise in Microsoft Excel & PowerPoint
• Advanced Expertise in Syndicated & Shopper Data (IRI, Nielsen, Numerator, Spectra, etc)
• Willingness to travel 10-25% of the time

PREFERRED

• Expertise in Madrid data
• Expertise in data visualization/data preparation tools (e.g., Tableau, Microsoft Access, PowerBI, SQL, VBA, Alteryx)
• Experience with alcoholic beverages or DSD categories

Physical Requirements

• A valid driver's license
• Ability to work remote