Category Executive

Job Title: Category Executive

Location: Hemel Hempstead (Hybrid)

Job Length: Permanent

Working Hours: Full Time

Competitive Salary with extensive benefits:

• Monthly product allowance – alcoholic & non-alcoholic options available
• Private Medical options
• Life Assurance
• Company bonus scheme
• Access to 24/7 GP services
• Enhanced pension contribution
• Generous holiday (inc bank holidays)
• Access to a range of high street discounts

Carlsberg Britvic is the largest multi-beverage supplier in the UK and is home to some of the most iconic and popular beers & soft drinks, including Carlsberg Danish Pilsner, 1664, Poretti and Brooklyn to ale favourites such as Hobgoblin and Wainwright. For soft drinks, Carlsberg Britvic’s brands include J2O, Robinsons, Tango and London Essence along with the licence rights to the Pepsi portfolio in the UK including Pepsi MAX, 7UP, Lipton Ice Tea and Rockstar Energy.

With a strong national footprint, the Carlsberg Britvic business includes 5 production facilities and 15 logistics depot’s servicing customers up and down the UK. As these two historical businesses have come together, the one common goal remains, and that is ensuring our people succeed.  

About the Role: 

The Off Trade in Carlsberg Britvic will deliver over £1.4 billion net revenue in 2025 and yet we know there is more growth for us to enjoy as we come together as a total drinks powerhouse.   

The Category Executive plays a vital role in translating category strategies into commercial execution.

Working closely with the Senior Category Manager, you will be working to deliver execution in outlet against our market maps and expectations for distribution, range, space and rate of sale driving propositions.

With a deep understanding of shopper behaviours and a collaborative mindset, you help deliver category growth for our customers, gain disproportionate advantage for our brands, and enhance Carlsberg Britvic’s standing as a trusted partner to our customers. 

This role is central to our planning and execution of commercial initiatives, therefore strong links will be required across the commercial functions, especially marketing, category strategy, insights, commercial operations and sales teams. 

Key Responsibilities: 

Lead the channels/customer category agenda ‘maximising today, and unlocking tomorrow’  

Customer Strategy & Vision

• Contribute towards the strategy and development of our annual operating category plans to drive execution against our category vision and range & merchandising.
• Support in the translation of consumer, shopper, and market trends into strategy, identifying where Carlsberg Britvic can drive category growth and gain competitive advantage.
• Contribute to the category roadmap with customer-specific insights and help prioritise tactical initiatives for maximum business impact.
• Champion the execution of space, range, distribution, and promotional tactics in outlet—ensuring consistency with our market maps and performance ambitions. 

Customer Thought Leadership & Execution

• Build and maintain customer relationships with key customer contacts, acting as the voice of the category and embedding Carlsberg Britvic’s thought leadership and leading to delivery of solutions to influence external measure of category success with improved results in the Advantage Group Survey.
• Support the execution of your customer/channel category roadmap through range reviews and identifying category initiatives to maximise point of purchase outcomes enabling us to maximise range, primary space, secondary location, availability and macro space, in outlet and online 
• Develop relevant category selling stories and tools and lead the development of customer immersions designed to engage customers and influence them to implement category solutions & strategies
• Support the delivery of category building initiatives and trials with customers e.g. fixturisation, cross category, category relays
• Support Category Managers with strategic agendas across hot topics such as health and wellness, sustainability, DRS (deposit return scheme) and HFSS (high fat salt sugar legislation) and provide the customer with a category point of view. 

Team Role & Capability Building 

• Support team culture grounded in collaboration, excellence, and performance.
• Champion continuous improvement and shared learning across the broader function.
• Put in place a development plan to improve your standards everyday
• Champion the power of category to other functions upskilling category capability and understanding to drive a greater impact 

Cross-Functional Collaboration 

• Act as a key connector between Insights, Category Strategy, Sales, and Brand/Channel operations teams to deliver fully integrated category solutions.
• Supports Category Managers with inputs into business cases across NPD and EPD with account level information on category and customer marketing opportunities where required.
• Evaluate the impact of actions taken & ensure that learnings feed into future business planning. 

Performance Tracking & Learning

• Support the development and delivery of range reviews and planograms.
• Track performance against agreed distribution, range, and space targets; and apply learnings to future planning.
• Support the translation of insights from results into future-facing planning recommendations and continuous improvement. 

Budgets

• Complete and submit expenses in a timely manner. 

Key Performance Measures

• Delivery of volume and value growth targets, agreed through AOP 
• Win market share through improved distribution, range and space gains
• Improved results in the Advantage Group Survey
• Improvement in perfect store measures
• Improved employee engagement scores and positive feedback 

Experience Required

• Some experience in FMCG, retail, or category/insights roles.
• Exposure to the category management process and direct customer interaction is desirable.
• Working knowledge of space planning tools (e.g., JDA) and loyalty platforms advantageous. 

Qualifications

• Degree (or equivalent) in Business, Marketing, Economics, or related field. 

Application Process:
We read applications continuously, and vacancies may be filled anytime, so please apply as early as possible.

We look forward to receiving your application.

This is an exciting time to join our newly formed business – with their incredible individual history’s, innovation of products and some of the UK’s most iconic brands, Carlsberg Britvic strives to deliver the best service to our customers and consumers. We aim to make a difference, bringing together two diverse companies, our global reach enables opportunity, growth and a chance to work with some fantastic people.