Category Manager - Ottawa, Canada - Lee Valley Tools

Lee Valley Tools

Verified Company

Ottawa, Canada

2 weeks ago

Posted by:

Sophia Lee

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Description

About Lee Valley:

Since 1978, Lee Valley has recognized that for many, woodworking and gardening are more than just hobbies.

Lee Valley Tools enjoys a proud history of providing high-quality woodworking, gardening, hobby, hardware, gift and seasonal merchandise to customers worldwide.

We pride ourselves on providing quality products and renowned customer service.

Lee Valley has been honored with many prestigious awards, including being recognized as one of Canada's Best Managed Companies in 2023 by Deloitte and one of Canada's Best Employers by Forbes in 2018.

Additionally, we ranked #1 for In-Store Experience in Ontario by Leger Marketing Inc.

A position at Lee Valley is more than just a job - we honor the time and dedication that our people give by providing sustained and meaningful employment while striving to provide an environment where learning and development are encouraged.

Overview:

Lee Valley is seeking a new hybrid role as an Associate Category Manager/Demand Planner.

This newly created position presents a unique opportunity for a dynamic professional looking to integrate the strategic abilities of a category manager with the precision required in demand planning.

In this role, the individual will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to optimize product assortments, negotiate favorable terms with suppliers, and develop comprehensive category strategies.

Simultaneously, they will harness their analytical expertise to implement the requirements from a demand planning processes, ensuring accurate forecasts and inventory optimization.

Mandate:

Be the merchant accountable for ensuring your portfolio meets the needs of our customers, protects our brand and is performing to business targets. You are also accountable for bringing to market the new products and promotions that will engage and delight our customers.
Maintain close working relationships with our vendors, create strategies and solutions for improving business performance and provide crossfunctional team direction and support to ensure execution on initiatives that drive the business and reinforce Lee Valley's position as a trusted, compelling place for our customers to shop.
Anticipate customer demand with effective sales planning/forecasting, timely purchase order execution.
Execute initiatives and tactics to support Lee Valley Tools supply chain and purchasing strategies.
Achieve efficiencies across assigned vendor partners. Ensure delivery of product to warehouses/retail stores meeting customer demand, in store display strategies and value proposition.
Maintains inventory levels to meet or exceed sales and margin $ plans.
Accountable for the performance management of assigned portfolios with major KPI's being Revenue $, Margin $, Margin %, Turnover and Inventory $ as well as new product and promotion deployment to target.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

As the product expert, develop with Divisional Merchandising Manager, the seasonal business targets, and supporting portfolio merchandising requirements to meet financial plan and customer expectations. Being consistent with our brand; conduct reviews (product development initiatives, rationalizing product lines, assortment planning).
Work closely with the stakeholders to drive and support execution of initiatives crossfunctionally to grow the business and reinforce Lee Valley's position as a trusted, compelling place for our customers to shop.
Align budgets, optimize inventory levels and subcategory assortments.
Performance management to Revenue, Margin, Turnover and Inventory value targets.
Provide analytical insights in support of customer engagement and Category initiatives on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual report basis for continuous improvement.
Ensure NP Queue is updated and accurate.
Develop and maintain stocking policies and planogram updates as required.
Maintain close working relationships with vendors to stay abreast of business/market changes.
Develop product and promotional business cases and collaborate with crossfunctional teams on the execution of product marketing strategies and collateral for our stores, catalogs and website.
Executes biannual Sales Planning and Buy Plan Execution (Integrated Planning & Execution).
Executes flow of purchase orders to support COGS, Receipt, and Inventory Plans.
Executes response process to action inseason changes, address evolving sales trends and maintain perpetual inventory.
Identify and action stock balance opportunities.
Performs effective order follow up. Communicates delivery status to key stakeholders. Ensure timely updates of system due dates to support accurate customer messaging.
Assists with developing simplified procedures to overcome business model complexities.
Position inventory ahead of peak customer demand in physical stores and regional warehouses.
Executes strategy to support store/warehouse inventory settings.
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