Director of Bakery Merchandising

The Fresh Market Inc • Greensboro, NC

23h • Hybrid

About The Position

The Fresh Market is looking for a Director, Bakery Merchandising at our Store Support Center (099) in Greensboro, NC. The Category Director is responsible for providing overall leadership and direction for The Fresh Market Bakery business to achieve profitable sales and program development. The Director drives implementation of best practices and achieve consistency for key processes related to product placement, pricing, promotion, procurement and vendor partnerships. The Director is responsible to manage the procurement and development of goods and commercial programs to attain service and quality standards.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required
• 7-10+ years of Category Management or related experience
• Possesses strong merchandising, product and marketing skills
• Strong ability to identify global issues and communicate within the organization
• Demonstrate strong analytical, negotiating and problem-solving skills
• Ability develop/maintain strong working relationship with peers and cross-functional teams
• Demonstrates leadership and decision-making skills
• Demonstrates strong listening, written and oral communication skills
• Willing and able to travel for trade shows and store trips
• Flexible and adaptive to changing priorities
• Able to organize and prioritize workload to meet deadline
• Takes calculated risks to achieve results
• Develops creative solutions to business issues
• Identifies emerging trends and shops competition and market regularly
• Demonstrated skills with MS Office applications
• Experience managing distribution vendors
• Project management skills

Nice To Haves

• Demonstrated experience utilizing Nielsen and/or IRI
• Experience with MicroStrategy

Responsibilities

• Plan and direct the company's merchandising programs and financial budgets for the department to develop programs which will result in achievement of targeted sales and margin.
• Direct and maintain accountability for all buying and pricing of products; regularly prepare and deliver reports on department performance, including pricing, promotion, sales, margin, new programs and products, and quality standard
• Develop Own Brand strategies and the role this segment plays within each department; collaborate closely with the Own Brand team on product development to ensure quality and desired strategic objectives are achieved.
• Collaborate with Merchandise Operations to support execution of Pricing and Promotional Strategies, Space Planning execution and Distribution/Transportation expectations.
• Collaborate with Marketing and eCommerce to ensure product quality and value is messaged appropriately and consistently
• Partner and collaborate with Store Operations on merchandising strategies, execution expectations as well as evaluation to improve both upstream planning process and downstream execution standards
• Monitor the competitive climate and develop strategies to maximize performance
• Stay abreast of emerging industry trends and foster innovation
• Determine and direct promotion, and display plans.
• Perform frequent and regular store visits to monitor and adjust store strategies
• Support and assist in the development of the company communication standards to maximize business efficiencies and employee effectiveness
• Work collaboratively within The Fresh Market to optimize seasonal rotation, new and discontinued products, and customer engagement/loyalty initiatives
• Be a TFM brand ambassador within the Food Retail industry; strong partnership and collaboration with industry vendors and council organizations
• Set a positive example for the desired culture and values of the organization.
• Hire, coach, train and develop merchandising staff to meet business growth needs
• Set clear performance expectations for direct reports and follow-up with timely performance evaluations; inspire, encourage, and lead staff to innovate in sourcing and finding ways to market both new and existing products to customers

Benefits

• Team member discount up to 40%
• Health, Dental & Vision insurance available for individual, spouse, partner, and family.
• 401K contribution and match for part-time and full-time team members.
• Personal time off and additional time off purchase plans available

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director