McCain Foods
Category Manager, Category Strategy & Own Label
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Position Title: Category Manager, Category Strategy & Own Label
Position Type: Regular - Full-Time
Requisition ID: 40337
Category Manager – Category Strategy & Own Label
Location: Scarborough
About The Role
In every role, McCainers are ambitious, curious, and passionate about creating exceptional work experiences - together. With a customer-first mindset, we make doing business with McCain easy.
The Category Manager – Category Strategy & Own Label is a pivotal executional role, bringing category growth strategies to life across Retail and Foodservice channels. This role plays a key part in translating strategic direction into practical, customer- and consumer-led initiatives that accelerate growth for McCain.
Working in close partnership with the Senior Category Manager and environment specialists, you’ll tailor category strategies and activation plans to the specific needs of each channel and customer environment. You’ll leverage robust data and insight to design, deliver, and track initiatives that strengthen the commercial performance of McCain’s Own Label portfolio. You’ll also support the growth of McCain Group’s Own Label business in the UK, collaborating closely with UK and European commercial teams to develop locally relevant, consumer- and operator-led propositions. These propositions will align to both category and customer strategies, helping to deliver McCain’s growth ambitions across Retail and Foodservice.
As a key point of contact for assigned customers, you’ll build best-in-class engagement, clearly articulate the value of McCain’s category propositions, and deliver data-led recommendations that create shared value for both McCain and its customers.
What You’ll Be Doing
Insight Development & Category Foresight
- Proactively analyse, synthesise, and communicate insights from a broad range of data sources, including market, shopper, loyalty, panel, customer, and operator data.
- Combine global trade flow, share, and capacity data with local quantitative and qualitative insight to deliver robust competitor monitoring and performance reporting.
- Translate insight into clear foresight on trends, opportunities, and risks—informing recommendations that drive growth for both customers and McCain.
Deliver Customer Category Growth Plans
- Execute category growth strategies in partnership with the Senior Category Manager and the wider Category Growth team.
- Work closely with environment and channel specialists to tailor initiatives for maximum impact across both Retail and Foodservice.
Enable Marketing, Innovation & Digital Effectiveness
- Support the development of new product, range, and activation concepts that grow the Own Label portfolio, ensuring shared value for McCain, customers, consumers, and operators.
- Contribute to the deployment and continual improvement of selling tools, using data and digital capability to increase customer engagement and effectiveness.
Lead Customer & Stakeholder Engagement
- Act as a trusted partner to key Retail and Foodservice customers, leveraging category expertise, the 3Cs framework, and customer communication plans to build strong, value-added relationships.
- Collaborate with UK and European commercial and innovation teams to develop compelling, insight-led Own Label proposals for customer meetings, range reviews, and new business development.
- Deliver clear, data-driven recommendations through category reviews, assortment optimisation, new product proposals, and thought leadership initiatives.
- Build and maintain strong relationships across internal teams and with external analytics and data partners.
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Apply Advanced Data & Analytical Capability
- Confidently query, interpret, and translate complex data into actionable commercial recommendations.
- Leverage market research, loyalty card data, shopper panels, and operator insights to inform category decisions.
- Bring curiosity and pace by exploring emerging technologies—such as AI-enabled tools—to improve accuracy, speed, and impact of insight.
What You’ll Need To Be Successful
- 3–5 years’ experience in category management, insight, commercial support, or product development within FMCG/CPG, ideally with exposure to Retail and/or Foodservice environments.
- A strong track record of turning consumer and market insight into action, with the ability to develop clear, commercially relevant recommendations.
- Advanced analytical capability, with hands-on experience using key data sources and tools, including:
- Retail: Kantar, Circana (formerly IRI/Nielsen), dunnhumby
- Foodservice: Lumina Intelligence, Circana CREST
- Additional tools: PowerBI, SAP BI, Excel, and CRM platforms (e.g., Salesforce)
- Proven ability to query, interpret, and synthesise complex data, translating insight into practical business and customer outcomes.
- Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the confidence to build effective relationships across internal teams and with external partners.
- A working knowledge of commercial frameworks across both Own Label and Branded propositions.
Benefits
Although we do encourage you to taste the goods, you'll be pleased to know we don't pay you in chips. Alongside your salary, you'll enjoy a range of benefits including:
- Private healthcare [single]
- Car Allowance
- Annual bonus scheme based on both company and individual performance with the ability to salary sacrifice into your pension
- An excellent salary sacrifice pension scheme where we'll contribute double what you do, up to a maximum of 12% of your salary
- 25 days' annual leave from day one plus bank holidays (increasing with service), giving you plenty of time to recharge with the opportunity to buy and sell up to 5 days holiday per year
- Life insurance cover providing peace of mind for you and your family
- Enhanced maternity and paternity pay, because the moments that matter outside of work matter to us too
- Medicash health cash plan, helping you claim money back on everyday healthcare costs, with access to a virtual GP and wellbeing support
- TELUS Health employee and family assistance programme offering full wellbeing support - including a 24/7 confidential counselling line, legal and financial guidance, and a range of employee discounts.
- Salary sacrifice cycle to work scheme
- A paid 'Chips In' Volunteering Day, giving you the opportunity to support projects that make a positive impact in our communities
- Flexible/hybrid working arrangements where the role allows
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About McCain
Click Here to learn more about McCain and how we provide you with opportunities to make an impact that matters.
Leadership Principles
At McCain, our leadership principles guide how we engage with customers, collaborate as a team, and achieve success. We focus on understanding customer needs, driving innovation, empowering people, and taking ownership to clear obstacles and deliver results.
The McCain Experience
We are McCain. This statement is a testament to our collective strength and our individual value. Your contributions play a vital role in our success. Our winning culture is rooted in authenticity and trust, empowering us to bring out the best in one another. Here, you’ll find opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive. Join us and experience why we’re better together.
Our purpose is grounded in building meaningful relationships. We’re big believers in the power of working together in person—it helps us stay connected, collaborate more effectively, and grow as a team. At the same time, we recognize the importance of flexibility. Most office-based roles follow a hybrid model, with the option to work remotely two days a week. There may be exceptions depending on the role and location, so we encourage you to speak with your recruiter for more details.
McCain Foods is an equal opportunity employer. As a global family-owned company, we strive to be the employer of choice in the diverse communities around the world in which we live and work. We recognize that inclusion drives our creativity, resilience, and success and makes our business stronger. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.
McCain is an accessible employer. If you require an accommodation throughout the recruitment process (including alternate formats of materials or accessible meeting rooms), please let us know, and we will work with you to find appropriate solutions.
Your privacy is important to us. By submitting personal data or information to us, you agree this will be handled in accordance with McCain’s Global Privacy Policy and Global Employee Privacy Policy, as applicable. You can understand how your personal information is being handled here.
Job Family: Sales
Division: GB Commercial Foodservice
Department: Category Strategy
Location(s): GB - United Kingdom : England : Scarborough || GB - United Kingdom : England : Hull || GB - United Kingdom : England : Leeds || GB - United Kingdom : England : York
Company: McCain Foods (G.B.) Ltd
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