Regional Category Manager - Private Label

Company Description

Since launching in Kuwait in 2004, talabat, the leading on-demand food and Q-commerce app for everyday deliveries, has been offering convenience and reliability to its customers. talabat’s local roots run deep, offering a real understanding of the needs of the communities we serve in eight countries across the region. We harness innovative technology and knowledge to simplify everyday life for our customers, optimize operations for our restaurants and local shops, and provide our riders with reliable earning opportunities daily. At talabat, we foster an innovative environment where our talabaty employees can strive to create a positive impact across the region through the use of our platform.

Job Description

Role Summary

We’re looking for a Regional Category Manager – Private Label to join the team and focus on growing our own Grocery Store “tMart”, which is the region’s first cloud store concept offering 30-minutedelivery of groceries at hypermarket prices. The service has expanded rapidly across Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Oman and Iraq!

What’s On Your Plate?

• Managing PL portfolio at the regional level (responsibility for sales, profitability, availability, inventory, strong
  
  

presence of the portfolio in the app)

• Leading countries in managing local PL suppliers, full responsibility over regional/international PL suppliers,
  
  

sourcing new potential suppliers while extending the portfolios

• Leading private label development process for new items (assortment selection, suppliers sourcing,
  
  

packaging creation and launch preparation): multiple projects in multiple countries at the same time

• Necessary skill set:
• Category Management
• Strong understanding of Commercial 4Ps (Pricing, Promotion, Presentation, Product)
• Strong analytical skills - monitoring of PL portfolio performance for the whole region (sales, profitability,
  
  

availability, inventories etc.), extracting insights from the data to improve and optimize PL performance

across the region (action plan recommendations for local markets)

• Easiness to work with the data & various data tools and easiness of presenting data in a compelling/concise
  
  

way.

• Suppliers management (negotiations, on-boarding, maintaining good relations) - both local and international
  
  

suppliers

• Brand Building
• Strong project management skills due to leading private label development process for new items
• Ability to work efficiently with external creative agency (packaging creation)
• Assuring maintenance of a consistent brand image of PL portfolio across the region (packaging standards,
  
  

communication/promotional standards etc.), keeping local markets in line with regional guidelines

• Others
• Great eye for details while managing new PL items development processes (lots of steps, grasping
  
  

knowledge from different areas like legal, quality, design)

• Impeccable time management skills in order to push all the projects efficiently and make sure that other
  
  

stakeholders involved are following agreed timelines

• Arabic speaker would be a big help in checking Arabic language used on the labels of all PL items
• This role should:
• Based on sales data take actions to optimize/uplift the PL portfolio's performance in each of the local
  
  

markets

• Based on the service level and inventory stocks (final product & packaging) take actions to optimize the
  
  

logistics and make sure that we never run out of stock

• Analyze communication/promotional activities and take actions to optimize them, share best practices
  
  

across the region

• Create and execute different negotiations strategies to assure manufacturers for all PL project (we are still
  
  

a growing business with limited volumes to secure, so it can be very challenging to find suppliers willing to

be flexible in the areas that are crucial for us - core example MOQs)

What Did We Order?

• This role needs very good communicational skills:
• The exposure to multiple external (local & international suppliers, creative agency etc.) and internal
  
  

stakeholders

• Indirectly leading a cross-functional team to achieve set targets
• Ability to influence others in order to facilitate and achieve targets better and faster
• Leading local markets and making sure they are in line with all the regional guidelines, so being able to
  
  

precisely and concisely explain things is crucial.

• You are very detail-oriented, structured and know how to prioritize -- you consider yourself as someone who
  
  

delivers solutions and not bottlenecks to be solved.

• You are someone energized by the unknown and look forward to learning each day on the job.
• Language skills: Fluent English and Arabic.