Head of Category Development, On Trade

Head of Category Development, On Trade

About us

Diageo is the world's leading premium drinks company with an outstanding collection of brands, such as Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Baileys, Captain Morgan, Tanqueray and Guinness. Our purpose - Celebrating life, every day, everywhere - has an important role in our company, for our people, our diversity, our brands, in how we perform and how we build shared value. There's a rich history of character and iconic products to promote. And we rely on driven, hardworking commercial executives to protect the legacy of these brands and ensure their future success.

The On Trade in GB is a highly complex and vibrant part of the market, encompassing around 1,000 customers, £370m+ NSV and accounting for 66% of total GB market share performance. To deliver our F27 vision, the GB on trade will need to grow to £500m NSV, delivering on Guinness and our big 5 priority brands Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Gordon's, Tanqueray and Baileys, as well as realising the potential of Draught Cocktails, Alc Free, as well as our Premium + portfolio.

Head of Category Development

Category Development is at the core of driving growth into the world of TBA. It seeks to sit at the heart of every decision we make at Diageo and ensures we consistently put consumers and customers at the center of everything we do, using the latest insight and data. Category Development at its best fuels category and consumer led strategies and plans and acts as a collaborative consultant, providing thought leadership and recommendations that create a triple win for consumers, customers and Diageo both in the short term and for future stability and growth.

The Head of Category Development, On Trade is responsible for leading Diageo to become the go to, most trusted and respected BWS supplier for category management and improving drinking experiences for everyone. They establish the blueprint for success at the point of purchase and key shifts required in their channel, from best in class category fundamentals to the creation and implementation of category growth drivers. Their team will partner with customers through joint business planning to execute the category strategy; deploying the strategies and plans to build the triple win. This will mean developing a deep understanding of customers and partnering closely with them on joint value creation projects; utilising advanced category management skills to advise customers how to maximise their revenue, margin, operational efficiency and guest happiness. This team will establish Diageo as the must trusted and credible category development team in GB, recognised for their objectivity and outstanding understanding of channel, category and guest trends and behaviour.

Responsibilities

• Establish Diageo as the go to supplier (and most trusted/respected) for category management across all strategic customers by leading team to deliver 'Best In Class' Category Management to include industry leading insights delivered through unbiased recommendations in a compelling & action orientated way
• Establish category management as a powerful growth engine for Diageo GB and connecting our internal teams across commercial, shopper marketing, activation, RGM & Digital to drive tangible actions from insight that will drive the triple win for Diageo, the customer and the consumer
• Ensure the On Trade consumer is at the heart of the Diageo business, influencing all collaborators to champion the channel, customer and consumer in all relevant plans and strategies
• Lead with senior partners in our customers' businesses to identify opportunities to grow BWS, strategically partnering with our customers' teams to analyse the future trends in the market & building collaborative plans passionate about growth
• Establish outstanding consumer insights programme, tools and processes to support advanced category development providing channel blueprints that define portfolio and execution priorities by sub channel and customer. Identify and understand key knowledge and insight gaps, working closely with consumer planning to resolve these
• Bring science and rigour into the point of purchase understanding (assortment, merchandising, pricing, promotion, display) and translate this into stretching goals and critical metrica for the team and build partnerships to deliver. Be curious and ensure we are exploring and testing whilst driving
• Establish and fully embed our On Trade Category growth strategy as the framework for expressing our category, brand, innovation and portfolio growth plans in GB
• Support the turnaround of the spirits category in GB, bringing value for customers, consumers and Diageo
• Make The Experience Centre a hub for customer collaboration, the envy of the world for joint value creation and a fundamental lever of being the best performing, most trusted and respected being the ~1 supplier in TAG survey
• Help to build Diageo's reputation as Thought Leaders in the area of Category Strategy and Category Development, working closely with trade press and external bodies
• Lead, manage, empower, mentor and develop a team of Category Development Managers all in service of delivering the category team mission and vision

Crucial Qualifications / knowledge / experience required / languages

• 5-10 years significant on trade / category development experience
• Prior experience of leading teams towards achieving targets
• Commercial mentality essential
• Able to demonstrate excellent relationship building and strong influencing skills across functions, internally and externally
• Ability to deal with and tackle ambiguity and think creatively to strive for solutions
• Analytical, systems proficiency and advanced Excel skills
• Fantastic storytelling and presentation skills beneficial

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