At EGIC, we believe that great brands are built through deep consumer understanding, continuous innovation, and category leadership. As we continue our growth journey, we are looking for a commercially driven and passionate Category Manager to shape our category strategy, drive innovation, and deliver sustainable business growth.
The Category Manager will be responsible for developing category strategies, managing the product portfolio throughout its lifecycle, identifying growth opportunities, and leading cross-functional initiatives to maximize market share, profitability, and customer value.
Key Responsibilities
Category Strategy & Business Growth
- Develop and execute the category strategy aligned with the company's overall business objectives.
- Define short- and long-term category growth plans and annual business targets.
- Monitor category performance, identify growth opportunities, and recommend corrective actions.
- Drive profitable revenue growth, market share expansion, and category profitability.
Portfolio Management
- Manage the product portfolio throughout its lifecycle, including product launches, upgrades, rationalization, and discontinuation.
- Develop portfolio architecture that addresses different customer segments and market needs.
- Recommend portfolio optimization based on sales performance, profitability, and market trends.
- Ensure product offerings remain competitive and aligned with customer expectations.
Innovation & New Product Development
- Identify innovation opportunities through consumer insights, market research, competitive benchmarking, and emerging industry trends.
- Lead new product development projects from concept generation to commercialization.
- Prepare business cases and feasibility analyses for new product initiatives.
- Collaborate with R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, and Sales to ensure successful product launches.
Market Intelligence & Consumer Insights
- Analyze consumer behavior, customer needs, competitive activities, and market dynamics.
- Conduct category reviews and identify white-space opportunities.
- Monitor market trends, pricing movements, and industry developments.
- Translate insights into actionable business strategies.
Pricing & Go-to-Market Strategy
- Develop pricing strategies that maximize profitability while maintaining market competitiveness.
- Lead positioning and value proposition development for existing and new products.
- Develop go-to-market plans in collaboration with Sales and Trade Marketing.
- Support promotional planning and commercialization activities.
Customer & Distributor Development
- Build a customer-centric and solution-based category approach.
- Collaborate with key distributors and customers to identify growth opportunities.
- Support joint business planning and category development initiatives.
- Develop value propositions that strengthen customer partnerships.
Cross-Functional Leadership
- Lead cross-functional teams to execute category initiatives.
- Collaborate with Sales, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Finance, Procurement, R&D, Quality, and Marketing Communications.
- Ensure alignment across departments to achieve category objectives.
- Manage project timelines and ensure timely execution.
Performance Management
- Track category KPIs including sales, market share, profitability, product mix, and innovation performance.
- Prepare monthly and quarterly business reviews.
- Develop dashboards and reports to support management decision-making.
- Recommend actions based on performance analysis.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in marketing, Business Administration, Engineering, or a related field.
- MBA is an advantage.
- 5–8 years of experience in Category Management, Product Management, Brand Management, or Strategic Marketing.
- Experience in sanitaryware, plumbing, building materials, ceramics, home improvement, or related industries is strongly preferred.
- Direct sanitaryware experience is highly desirable.
Knowledge & Skills
- Strong commercial and strategic thinking.
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Experience in portfolio management and product lifecycle management.
- Strong understanding of pricing strategy and profitability analysis.
- Market research and consumer insight capabilities.
- Financial acumen with experience managing category P&Ls.
- Project management and cross-functional leadership skills.
- Excellent presentation, communication, and negotiation skills.
- Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.
- Experience with ERP, CRM, and business intelligence tools is an advantage.
Core Competencies
- Strategic Thinking
- Customer Focus
- Commercial Acumen
- Innovation
- Data-Driven Decision Making
- Business Partnership
- Collaboration & Influencing
- Results Orientation
- Agility & Adaptability
- Ownership & Accountability
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Category sales growth
- Gross margin and profitability
- Market share growth
- New product launch success
- Portfolio profitability
- Innovation pipeline delivery
- Forecast accuracy
- Customer satisfaction
- Distributor engagement
- Time-to-market for new products
