Regional Category Manager - Imports

Role Summary

We're looking for a Regional Category Manager Imports to join the team and focus on growing our own Grocery Store tMart, which is the region's first cloud store concept offering 30-minute delivery of groceries at hypermarket prices. The service has expanded rapidly across Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Oman, and Iraq!

What's On Your Plate

1. Managing Imports portfolio at the regional level (responsibility for sales profitability, availability, inventory, and strong presence of the portfolio in the app).
2. Sourcing, negotiating with, and onboarding new consolidators to bring imported items from all regions (crucial for our business: UK, Europe, US, APAC, etc.).
3. Leading replenishment for the whole region (leading local markets in implementing effective replenishment plans for All Year Round ranges).
4. Leading logistics and compliance for imports initiative across the region (making sure that everything regarding consolidation, shipping, customs, clearance, registration, and transportation to the final destination is well taken care of with the help of necessary external partners).

Necessary Skill Set:

1. Strong understanding of the impact of imported products on Commercial 4Ps (Pricing, Promotion, Presentation, Product).
2. Strong analytical skills (monitoring of Imports portfolio performance for the whole region: sales, profitability, availability, inventories, etc.) and extracting insights from the data to improve and optimize Imports performance across the region (action plan recommendations for local markets including expertise in recommending categories to penetrate and brands to introduce).
3. Easiness to work with data & various data tools and ease of presenting data in a compelling/concise way.
4. Suppliers management (negotiations, onboarding, maintaining good relations) both local (agent companies) and international (consolidators from various regions).
5. Good time management skills in order to push all stakeholders involved to follow agreed timelines.
6. Meticulous while managing compliance part of the imports process.
7. Candidate must be well-versed in retail (assortment with focus on imported items); experience in working for a well-known consolidator could be a strong plus (preferably serving MENA clients).
8. Responsible for managing the Imports assortment at the regional level driving the initiative to penetrate more categories (frozen, chilled, non-food) and new origins.

What Did We Order

1. Strong understanding of the importance of Imports in the commercial strategy.
2. Good overview of the region regarding imports categories & brands that are working best, with a good eye for innovation and niche opportunities.
3. Working experience with/knowledge of imports documentation (including labeling), customs & regulatory compliance, imports logistics & supply chain aspects would be a big plus.
4. You are very detail-oriented, structured, and know how to prioritize. You consider yourself as someone who delivers solutions and not bottlenecks to be solved.
5. You can interact with senior-level executives and manage the expectations of multiple stakeholders.
6. You are energized by the unknown and look forward to learning each day on the job.
7. You have excellent analytical and communication skills and always like to be hands-on with several tools.

Remote Work: No

Employment Type: Full-time