Five Star Breaktime Solution's Vice President of Category Management and Purchasing reports directly to the company Chief Revenue Officer. The Vice President is responsible for all oversight and management of our Category Management team and our Purchasing Manager, managing and tracking all discount and rebate incentives along with managing compliance to authorized products. This is a dynamic position that incorporates leadership, vision, innovation, and collaboration across many of Five Star's business lines and other corporate departments to achieve a competitive edge, customer success, and margin growth. The position requires a progressive thinker who can develop, guide, and own initiatives from start to finish. The VP will be responsible for developing, training, and adding the talent required for the Category Management and Purchasing Departments to successfully support the Operations team in providing the best-in-class product selection at the highest margin to space possible.

If selected for this role you must be able to relocate to Chattanooga, TN

Critical to Five Star, the Vice President leads and mentors the Category Management and Purchasing teams, fostering a culture aligned with the company's vision, mission and values, with key contributions including but not limited to:

• Comprehensive direction and leadership for the analysis, product selection, and programming of all categories of products to align with current and future needs of the business and our customers.
• Ensuring all products in the categories are best-in-category and procured at the best possible margin to include maximizing all discounts and rebates.
• Directs and manages the relationship with supplier partners to create, vet and execute local and national programming and solutions that drive growth, customer loyalty, and profitability.
• Communicates the company's strategic vision and goals to all stakeholders, supplier partners, and advocates for the team's needs and objectives.
• Work closely with all corporate departments to include Business Intelligence, Marketing, and Retail Execution to facilitate a seamless and highly profitable category management plan.

Essential Job Functions:

• Provide leadership to the Category Management and Purchasing Teams by communicating the necessary strategic guidance to effectively plan, execute, and measure a procurement /category management program that optimizes inventory movement and margins.
  • Develop and maintain a deep knowledge and understanding of category products/markets, supplier costs and the impacts on company performance.
  • Develop short and long-term category procurement strategy and goals, and savings targets based on market analysis and understanding trends.
• Own, develop, and execute the category sales and margin goals, while improving financial performance and making appropriate adjustments as conditions change.
• Define key performance metrics in alignment with company goals and prioritize their implementation within the category management and purchasing teams.
• Represent Five Star in partnerships with key distributors, suppliers, brokers, and other outside organizations to optimize trade associations, relationships, pricing, and promotional programming.
• Drive strategic development in various categories, such as beverage, candy, snacks, and grab-n-go packaged food to increase sales and margins through optimized product selections, assortment, pricing, placement, and programming.
• Lead change management efforts to support the company's growth plan and strategic initiatives.
• Incorporate digital transformation and data capabilities to enhance decision-making processes.
• Oversee the tracking and management of our national and local rebate programming to ensure that rebates are optimized and that all rebates earned are paid by Foodbuy and by our supplier partners.
• Oversee Five Star's retail pricing strategy to ensure that Five Star's budgeted cost of goods are met or exceeded while maintaining a balance with external retail pricing, such as the Convenience channel.
• Lead company efforts for development and execution of promotional activity for our micro-market line of business to include coordinating with all of our supplier partners to fund all promotions and to develop optimal promotions of products to drive sales and margin growth.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Demonstrated success in managing a team of category managers handling multiple categories in a fast-paced, results-driven environment.
• Demonstrated a keen understanding of basic business operations and the organizational levers (systems, processes, departments, functions, core components) that drive profitable growth; draws from personal experience to quickly evaluate business plans and processes to identify data or recommendations that need further investigation.
• Demonstrated ability to translate strategic priorities into operational reality; aligning communication, accountabilities, resource capabilities, internal processes, and ongoing measurement systems to ensure that strategic priorities yield measurable and sustainable results.
• In-depth experience in pricing strategy and analytics.
• Acute awareness of market competition and trends.
• Strong ability to be self-motivated and detail oriented in a high-pressure environment.
• Proven ability to successfully manage multiple product categories representing hundreds of million dollars in purchases. Additionally have proven ability to track, grow, and manage multimillion-dollars in rebates, discounts and incentives.
• Ability to inspire excellence and drive high standards; tenaciously working to meet or exceed challenging goals; defining success by goal achievement and continuous improvement.
• Ability to drive organizational and cultural changes needed to achieve strategic objectives; catalyzing new approaches to improve results by transforming organizational culture, systems, or products/services; helping others overcome resistance to change.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively with all levels of board-level executives, senior management, supplier partners, and team members of all levels.
• Unquestionable integrity and ethical standards.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

Minimum Education and Experience:

• A bachelor's degree is required or equivalent job experience; an MBA in Management is preferred.
• Minimum of 10 years of professional experience in category management, product marketing, and business leadership preferably in high-growth, multi-location environments within CPG, Food & Beverage, Wholesale and Retail Grocery, and Convenience Store industry

Benefits:

• Full-Time Employee Benefits Package Includes: Medical, Vision, Dental, Life & AD&D, Critical Illness, Short & Long Term Disability, 401(k), paid vacations and holidays
• Help us generate 500,000 meals for hungry kids each year via our 501(c)3 charity, Feeding the Future, Inc.

About Five Star Food Service:

Join one of the nation's largest on-site food and beverage service providers proudly offering custom solutions to our clients including micro markets, full-line vending, coffee service, pantry service, sustainable products, water (filtered and bottled) service, catering, and corporate food service.

Notice: Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

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