Who We Are

Conexus Food Solutions is a leader in the Asian food service industry, bringing a diverse range of ethnic cuisines, such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai, to the table. Our corporate headquarters in Chicago is where we house our fully integrated food processing, manufacturing, logistics, and worldwide supply chain services all under one roof. With distribution centers spanning the US, over 2 million square feet of warehousing space, and a fleet of more than 1,000 trucks, we're the go-to when it comes to reliable delivery services.

At Conexus Food Solutions, we believe that teamwork and collaboration are the keys to success. We pride ourselves on maintaining the highest standards of integrity and honesty in everything we do and building strong relationships with our clients. We're looking for individuals who share our values and are committed to excellence. Join our team and contribute to our culture of collaboration and integrity while growing your own skills and expertise. Together, we'll deliver high-quality products and exceptional service to our clients and achieve great things.

What You’ll Do

As the Category Manager - Commodity, you will develop and execute our national category strategy, manage vendor relationships, and monitor category performance. You will manage a team of buyers and product specialists and work closely with regional teams and collaborate with various departments to drive business growth.

• Manage the structure of commodity purchasing by leveraging internal data, market insights, and feedback from the buyers and product specialist team to influence the selection and breadth of our categories.
• Oversee the product lifecycle including pre-season planning through execution and tracking management; in-season sales forecasting management; and the application of the obtained data for upcoming seasons.
• Ensure the team maintains an optimal inventory level and improve sales and profitability, as well as collaborate with the sales team to broaden external sales efforts.
• Develop, implement, and manage the performance of national category strategies and short and long-term category objectives aimed at driving the category to meet and/ or exceed business growth targets and objectives.
• procurement policies and procedures
• Collaborate cross departmentally, adjusting category management strategies as needed to drive performance.
• Monitor and analyze category performance on a national, regional, and division level. Based on analysis, adjust category strategies as required to drive overall category performance, including sales growth and improve GP3.
• Lead the effort to drive Exclusive Brand (EB) penetration across the category by ensuring EB products are primary considerations in the development of assigned category and benchmark against our industry.
• Establish, maintain, and grow relationships with suppliers and lead negotiation efforts.
• Manage vendor communications and consistently provide vendor performance feedback and resolve complex issues.
• Develop category level pricing strategies, continually reviewing pricing structure and implementing changes to maximize performance.
• Negotiate national vendor price deviation funding and determine category promotion strategy. Determine and offer pricing and promotional materials.
• Manage overall category product assortment, to include the execution of assortment reviews, determining core SKUs, reviewing new vendor items, driving national assortment harmonization, and reducing product duplication.
• Identify gaps in EB portfolio, collaborating with product development teams to drive EB product innovation. Monitor market trends to identify product development opportunities.
• Establish product specifications for EB vendors in conjunction with Product Development and monitor performance.
• Other duties assigned by the manager.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business or a related field.
• 7 years of category management or equivalent working experience relating to commodities.
• Must possess, or be able to rapidly develop, a strong knowledge of products within assigned category and division sales.
• Proficient at analyzing data and developing strategies based on findings, and support change management with the organization.
• Strong verbal, written and presentation skills required with the ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams.
• Highly motivated, ability to prioritize and self-direct, strong business acumen and interpersonal skills.
• MS Office proficiency including Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint required.
• Prior experience with Microsoft Access a plus.
• Fluency in Chinese/Mandarin will be helpful but not required.

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