Corp Director, Cat Management Cheese & Dairy

Job Summary:

The Director of Category Management for Cheese & Dairy will lead strategic initiatives within these critical product categories, focusing on enterprise-wide category management and maximizing sales growth. This role will drive profitable growth by aligning with sales, merchandising, and supplier partners to develop and execute targeted strategies for cheese and dairy product lines, ensuring alignment with the unique demands of food service distribution.

Essential Job Functions:

• Drive category growth by increasing exclusive brand penetration for cheese and dairy across all divisions.
• Recruit, train, and develop top talent with expertise in cheese, dairy, and category management.
• Collaborate with sales and margin management teams to optimize profitable sales growth in the cheese and dairy categories.
• Coordinate regional sales blitzes focused on cheese and dairy product lines, partnering with local sales teams.
• Develop and execute promotional activities for cheese and dairy in collaboration with division leadership.
• Implement brand strategy initiatives by working closely with merchandising to enhance cheese and dairy product offerings.
• Identify and close product voids by converting accounts to exclusive cheese and dairy brands and expanding product lines.
• Develop category-specific training programs for local leadership to boost expertise in cheese and dairy offerings.
• Present strategies and results to senior leadership while working cross-functionally across the organization.
• Enhance customer retention and penetration efforts by partnering with sales leadership to target existing customers.
• Support acquisition integration efforts to ensure smooth onboarding of new cheese and dairy suppliers, maximizing synergy across the enterprise.
• Negotiate marketing programs with key dairy and cheese suppliers, collaborating with merchandising teams.
• Participate in RFP processes specific to cheese and dairy categories to secure advantageous supplier contracts.

Key Responsibilities:

• Sales growth within cheese and dairy categories
• Exclusive brand penetration in cheese and dairy by capturing product voids and converting customer accounts
• Marketing income improvement by negotiating supplier programs and expanding exclusive brand lines
• Increase cases per drop and lines per drop for street accounts
• Build and maintain strong supplier relationships to ensure competitive pricing and product availability

Minimum Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Bachelor's Degree required; MBA preferred

10+ years of progressive experience in merchandising, with a focus on foodservice and perishable products

Expertise in private brand product development within the cheese and dairy space

Strategic thinker with a proven ability to execute against financial targets

Strong verbal and written communication skills with the ability to present to executive leadership

Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Tableau

Willingness to travel as needed to support regional sales teams and supplier meetings

Ferraro Foods is an equal opportunity employer.

Salary to commensurate with experience.

MON - FRI | EVENTS AS NEEDED