MSC Industrial Supply Co. UK
Category Manager - Cutting Tools
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Category Manager – MSC
As a Category Manager with MSC, you will be responsible for leading and driving growth within our largest and most strategically important category – Cutting Tools. This category is at the heart of MSC's business and plays a critical role in helping customers improve manufacturing productivity, process reliability and machining performance. You will bring our category strategy to life through strong supplier partnerships, market-leading product propositions and innovative solutions that address the evolving needs of our customers.
The Category Management team is evolving to create an industry-leading product offering, supported by exceptional supplier relationships and deep market expertise. As the leader of our most significant category, you will have a direct impact on MSC's growth, profitability and long-term success.
What will you be doing?
You will have full accountability for MSC's largest category, Cutting Tools, encompassing Milling, Turning, Threading and Holemaking. You will develop and execute the category strategy, driving market share growth, supplier performance and customer value through best-in-class tooling solutions that improve accuracy, productivity, efficiency and machine uptime.
Drive Category Growth
- Develop and execute category growth plans focused on machine performance optimisation, tooling accuracy and process reliability.
- Work closely with suppliers specialising in Milling, Turning, Threading and Holemaking.
- Collaborate with Sales and technical teams to support customer productivity initiatives, including machine set-up optimisation and process improvement.
- Lead strategic supplier engagement to deliver innovation aligned with machining trends, automation and smart manufacturing.
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Enhance Category Profitability
- Optimise portfolio mix across premium, performance-led solutions and strong value alternatives.
- Negotiate supplier agreements with a strong understanding of technical differentiation, application value and total cost of ownership.
- Identify cross-sell and bundling opportunities across cutting tools, Workholding and toolholding.
Delivering Data-Driven Product Excellence
- Ensure technical products have best-in-class data, specifications and application content to support confident buying decisions.
- Build and maintain a clear Machine Optimisation product roadmap aligned to machining accuracy, repeatability and efficiency.
- Use insight from customer behaviour and supplier expertise to guide range rationalisation and expansion.
Additional Responsibilities
- Act as a subject-matter champion for Toolholding, Workholding and CNC machine equipment within the business.
- Support machine optimisation initiatives by aligning product selection to machining processes such as milling, turning and multi-axis operations.
- Evaluate emerging technologies including modular workholding, quick-change systems, probing and in-process inspection.
- Partner with Marketing to deliver application-led propositions and educational content.
- Monitor market and competitor trends to ensure ongoing category competitiveness.
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What do you need?
- Experience or strong working knowledge of category management, product management or commercial experience within the Cutting Tools industry, ideally covering Milling, Turning, Threading and Holemaking.
- Strong understanding of machining environments, manufacturing productivity drivers, tooling performance and process optimisation.
- OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) background preferred, with experience working closely with engineering, product development or manufacturing teams to bring innovative solutions to market.
- Ability to translate complex technical product features into compelling customer and commercial value propositions.
- A proven track record of developing category strategies, managing supplier relationships and delivering profitable growth.
- Strong commercial acumen with experience negotiating supplier agreements and driving category performance.
- Excellent cross-functional collaboration skills and confidence acting as a technical and commercial subject matter expert.
- Experience using customer, market and supplier insights to identify growth opportunities and shape category direction.
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