Description
Obsessed with travel? Love color, energy and adventure? Join our team and help us create aspirational travel and lifestyle products that inspire the next generation of travellers
As a Category Manager, you are responsible for developing and defining the American Tourister product assortment across multiple categories with the objective to drive sales growth, profitability and market share. You will report to the General Manager American Tourister.
Join the American Tourister Team based in the European Head Office, Oudenaarde (Belgium) and become part of an industry-leading luggage and bags brand.
Key Responsibilities
Team Responsibilities:
* The Category Manager has direct responsibility for supervising and developing a Junior Category Manager
* Accountable for assigning categories, projects and priorities to ensure effective workload distribution and timely delivery.
* Provides ongoing coaching, mentoring and performance feedback to support professional development
* Holds disciplinary responsibility in line with company policies and procedures, ensuring compliance and appropriate conduct.
Category Management:
* Define and lead the product strategy for the American Tourister brand in Europe.
* Develop, formulate and implement a clear product strategy for the categories in charge with a strong focus on driving sales growth and profitability maximization.
* Build and maintain a cohesive, compelling and brand-aligned product assortment, ensuring consistency with brand DNA, while identifying opportunities for synergies and operational efficiencies.
* Manage the full SKU lifecycle from product initiation through phase out, ensuring optimal assortment performance at all stages.
* Maintain strict control over SKU count and performance, continuously evaluating productivity and rationalization opportunities.
* Monitor and analyze market trends, consumer behavior and preferences relevant to the assigned categories.
* Maintain a comprehensive understanding of the category dynamics and the competitive landscape.
* Maintain a good relationship with internal and external stakeholders, development, communication and design teams.
* Ensure seamless category development and adherence to product development timelines to support timely and successful market launches.
* Identify and evaluate new business opportunities to drive innovation and growth.
* Deliver high-quality, ad-hoc analysis and transparent reporting to support informed strategic decision-making.
* Proactively communicate assortment strategies and plans to internal teams and regional markets to enable cross-merchandizing opportunities and maximizing commercial performance
General:
* Gather detailed and relevant information from local markets through permanent communication with the field.
* Deliver information to the forecasting and supply team on SKU level.
* Constantly Update SKU count / Visual Line Plan and other documents relevant to promote and manage the given categories.
* Promote the given categories to internal and external stakeholders.
* Prepare monthly highlights for the categories in charge.
* Be and act as an ambassador of the brand and the categories in charge.
Qualifications
Applicants should ideally:
* Possess a master's degree in Marketing, Business or Product development and demonstrate at least 7-10 year total work experience with min 3 years of experience in product development or category management in a consumer goods environment (ideally bags, backpacks, luggage, sports…) with proven track record of launching commercially successful products.
* Have an excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word) and PowerBI
* Be proficient in English, spoken and written
* Possess excellent interpersonal, presentation and communication skills
* Strong multi-tasking and prioritization skills, enabling effective management of multiple initiatives simultaneously.
* Possess leadership and mentoring skills
* Be independent and a team player: enthusiastic, flexible, responsive and determined
Samsonite is offering:
* A very challenging job with growing possibilities in the European Headquarters of an international company based in Oudenaarde.
* A permanent job with an attractive compensation package, including an excellent pension scheme, a competitive group insurance, lunch vouchers and extra holidays.
Travel is one of life's greatest experiences. Are you ready to travel with us?
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