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Category Manager - Christmas

Job description

About the Business

Our client is a highly respected and rapidly expanding retail group, renowned for delivering beautifully designed, trend-led products across seasonal and lifestyle categories. With a particularly strong presence in Christmas and seasonal ranges, they are known for combining creativity with commercial excellence. The business has an outstanding reputation for quality, innovation, and delivering memorable customer experiences, making this an exciting time to join a collaborative and forward-thinking organisation focused on sustainable growth.

The Opportunity

We are seeking an experienced and commercially driven Christmas Category Manager to take full ownership of a key seasonal category. This is a pivotal role for a proactive, detail-oriented professional who thrives on range building, trend-led product curation, and Far East sourcing. You'll have significant autonomy to shape the Christmas category strategy, driving growth, profitability, and customer appeal across this critical trading period.

Key Responsibilities

  • Analyse Christmas trends, seasonal insights, and competitor activity to inform and refine category strategy.
  • Build, curate, and evolve compelling Christmas product ranges that excite customers and maximise sales.
  • Source, negotiate, and maintain strong relationships with Far East suppliers to ensure competitive pricing, quality, and on-time delivery for peak season.
  • Manage the full product lifecycle, from concept, design, and development through to launch, merchandising, and post-season performance review.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally on pricing, promotions, and marketing activity to optimise seasonal visibility and sell-through.
  • Monitor margins, landed costs, and category KPIs, using data to drive informed commercial decisions.
  • Plan and manage budgets, forecasts, and stock levels to align with seasonal demand and critical trading windows.

Skills & Experience

  • Proven experience as a Category Manager or Buyer, ideally within Christmas, seasonal, home décor, or gifting categories.
  • Strong analytical capability with the confidence to turn insight into commercial action.
  • Demonstrated success in building and trading seasonal or fast-paced retail ranges.
  • Solid experience sourcing and negotiating with Far East suppliers.
  • Excellent commercial acumen, communication, and negotiation skills.
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and PowerPoint.
  • A proactive, organised, and collaborative approach, with the confidence to work autonomously.

Why Apply?

This is an exceptional opportunity to take ownership of a high-profile Christmas category within a growing retail group at an exciting stage of its journey. You'll play a key role in shaping seasonal strategy, working with international suppliers, and seeing your impact come to life during the most important trading period of the year.

If you're a commercially minded Christmas Category Manager looking for your next challenge, we'd love to hear from you.

What's Next?

For further information regarding this opportunity, please send your CV to Rae@morepeople.co.uk.
If you feel you meet most of the requirements but would like to discuss the role further, please call 01780 480530.

RG21052

INDOTHER