Assistant Category Manager

Spinrite is the largest craft yarn and sewing thread company in North America. As an industry leader focused on driving growth and execution excellence, we are looking for an Assistant Category Manager to join our growing Marketing team.

Reporting to the Category Director, this individual will will collaborate with internal stakeholders to support the development and execution of category management strategic growth plans, that support revenue and profit forecasts, P&L budget, and future business development objectives, including go-to-market channel strategies. This role will also coordinate successfully deploying a robust innovation pipeline in the market across all existing and new channels to achieve category leadership.

The owner of this role will be highly focused on continuous growth and winning, passionate about the business, and an internal driver for execution excellence.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Support to set a vision for growth and profitability for the category of brands under direct responsibility, including a path for go-to-market & channel strategies.

• Collaborate with the PD team to define prioritization and execution of new product pipeline for the category, with a strong focus on incremental sales and defending base business.

• Project manage, and sometimes lead, cross-functional initiatives for Category new product launch to execute successfully on agreed milestones and timelines, and post-launch analysis.

• Coordinate and collaborate with Sales and PD to define the “size of opportunity,” either NPD or Promotional planning, to forecast channel opportunities and feed inputs into the S&OP process.

• Support the development and be appointed lead of Business Cases for high-priority and strategic category innovation and promotional projects and coordinate cross-functional teams to execute those successfully.

• Briefings for category research on Products (new or existing), feeding insights and inputs, consumer and/or retail, into the Product Development team for continuous improvement plans.

• Continuous monitoring and communication of competitive category analysis – direct competitors, retailers – to support the elaboration of revised business strategies or to drive fast market response to opportunities.

• Gather all necessary and accurate data for supporting the definition of Category pricing strategy, including high-low promotional price analysis and consumer pricing elasticity.

• Coordinate activity and process for Category product life cycle management, driving best-in-class sku management to support strategies for Inventory and E&O targets.

• Responsible for ensuring the health and safety of others within one’s own team or functional area.

Qualifications:

• Strong communication skills

• Creative and strategic thinker, great at problem-solving

• Excellent project and time management skills with the ability to work on multiple projects.

• Independent, entrepreneurial thinker, and adaptable to change with solid consumer and customer focus.

• Solid computer skills in applications including Office, Excel, Word

• Min 2-3 years’ experience in a related role in the textile crafts industry

• Experience working with retailers like Michaels, Joann, or Hobby Lobby in both the US and Canada

• Knowledge about Brand P&L, with prior responsibilities in brands over $100M sales

• University education in Business or Marketing. MBA is an asset.

Spinrite is an equal opportunity employer. It is our policy to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and all applicants for employment without regard to any status protected by the Ontario Human Rights Code, US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and applicable state law. If you need assistance or accommodations during any part of the application or interview process, please contact us at 519-291-3780 and ask to be transferred to HR.