Category Manager

Job title:Category Manager
Department: Marketing
Responsible to: Senior Category Manager
Salary: A competitive salary is available plus great company benefits
Location: Flexible hybrid working, Farringdon and home - 3 days in office / 2 days working from home
Hours: Monday – Friday, 40 hours per week
Little Moons are frozen and chilled mochi, a fusion of Eastern and Western cuisine – soft and chewy rice flour dough wrapped around balls of ice cream, cheesecake, or chocolate ganache to create a distinctive, bite-sized, and delicious dessert that’s bursting with flavour.
Their rollout across Europe has been pioneered by sister and brother duo Vivien and Howard Wong, who founded Little Moons in 2010. The product’s roots are in high-end restaurants, but over the last five years retail packs have swept the ice cream category in grocery and food service.
The business has rapidly established mochi, and snacking ice cream across Europe. In FY22 we generated more than £50m in revenue, and in FY23 we are targeting +50% YoY growth. Based on experience in the USA, mochi ice cream is likely to make up 2-3% of the total ice cream category within 1-2 years.
We are very proud of the culture that we have built at Little Moons. Not to stroke our own egos, but we are a great bunch of people—smart, passionate, interesting, and funny—who work hard to support and live our values, all the while keeping our mission in our forethoughts.
The Role:
An exciting opportunity to join our fast-growing category management team – this new Category Manager role will be at the heart of our mission to make ice cream an elevated treat all year round.
You’ll be building deep and broad connections with retailer partners through category-led selling and telling our category story. Responsible for key grocery customers in the UK, you’ll also have the opportunity to take category leadership in our fast-growing international markets.
Key Responsibilities:

• Be category leader in frozen snacking by category-led selling and by building deeper category connections to retailers.
• Engage key retail partners on our category story and influence retail partner range review decisions to increase macro space & improve quality of space for ice cream snacking, and position Little Moons as the pioneer of the category’s growth (in turn, increasing the space allocated to Little Moons in-store).
• Working closely with key account teams, build long term relationships with key retailers* and engage on long term ice cream strategy (3-5 years). Develop wider matrix relationships in retailers to strengthen leadership story (merchandisers, Category Managers, senior managers).
• Be an in-house market data specialist, own the data and insight agenda to build and sell our category story.
• Along with the Senior Category Manager and the expanding category team, champion the category management discipline within the business and upgrade both how we track performance and stay close to shopper behaviour, taking ownership of our relationships with key shopper data providers and regularly providing reports and presenting on performance.

*It is likely this role will take direct responsibility for two key grocery customers in the UK and one international market (e.g. France, DACH, ANZ), mirroring the structure of the sales team to create strong business partnerships. Exact allocation of customers/markets will depend on the candidate.
Essential Requirements:

• The ideal candidate will bring exceptional category management training in another business combined with a hunger for a more fast-growth, agile company culture.
• A proven track record of understanding and interpreting complex data to produce compelling retailer stories that get results, and will have had exposure to the UK grocery market in particular.
• A self-starting leader with good business acumen and sound commercial judgement, combined with strong analytical, presentation and communication skills.
• Highly motivated and organised, articulate and confident but with a ‘team player’ mindset that enables them to seamlessly influence across the entire business.
• Fluency in German (written and spoken) preferred.
• 3+ years in a Category Management role with exposure to at least one Top4 grocery customer in the UK

Some of the benefits of working here include:
Little Moons is a fast-growing and dynamic business, the nature of which means roles and responsibilities can change and grow quickly and at scale. We never stand still for long, and for the right person this represents an opportunity to grow and evolve your role and responsibilities with us and to develop your career at pace.
We will provide you with as much support, guidance, and training as you need, and offer the below benefits to boot:

• Medicash, Private Health Scheme & Death in Service
• Enhanced New Baby Leave available.
• We understand that mental health matters. We partner with Health Assured to provide remote emotional support to team members.
• Discretionary annual bonus based on personal & company performance.
• Up to 8 weeks of paid sick leave
• Respect, trust, and honesty. Personal and professional maturity is important to us, and we keep each other honest
• Your holidays – We believe in finding your work-life alignment and encourage all staff to use their 25 days, plus public holidays
• Additional days off with long service
• Personal CPD budgets & team volunteer days

To be engaged, you must feel included and valued, so we have built, and nurtured, a culture where inclusiveness is not a buzzword, but a way of being.

Our approach to diversity is simple —it’s about embracing everyone, and everyone is welcome at Little Moons. We are committed to welcoming everyone, regardless of gender identity, orientation or expression. We are diverse in age, race, physical or mental ability, ethnicity, and perspective. Our diversity fuels our innovation, bring diversity of thought, and connects us closer to our customers and the communities we serve.

All applicants must have the right to work in the United Kingdom.