Product Manager

Within our different Business Units Bakery, Chocolate or Patisserie, you drive the product management activities worldwide from our headquarters in Groot-Bijgaarden, Brussels.

Within the overall Puratos strategy and in close cooperation with business stakeholders, you are responsible:

- to define and implement the product strategy per channel & per market,

- to manage the product portfolio,

- to drive the product related business development

- to lead the (product) innovation/renovation

Together with your R&D colleague, you are responsible to achieve business results (growth & profitability) to reach the yearly budget and long range plan.

Key Accountabilities

· You collect, analyze and build market intelligence around disruptive innovations within one of the business units from a wide range of data sources and identify possible impacts on the business.

· You build and implement the product strategy aligned with Markets/ Channels/ Operations in line with the respective BU’s vision, in order to determine optimal competitive positioning to reach short and long term business objectives.

· You manage the product portfolio (profitability optimization, pricing, SKU management, benchmarking) and all elements of the marketing mix (branding, pricing, route to market, promotions…)

· You monitor the sales performance in terms of volume, sales, margin evolution, customer penetration, … You propose, agree and roll-out corrective actions or acceleration plans with local organizations and regional direction.

· You actively support business development (markets, channels, customers) by customers visits , customer presentations, training, exchange of best practices

· You develop sales and product communication support tools in line with the Group communication strategy

· You manage the Innovation pipeline following Stage & Gate process to create future differentiation.

· You manage relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders to share the product vision, create involvement at different organizational levels.

Skills

· You have a Business or Marketing degree with 7+ years of relevant experience in product management & a strong focus on communication. Experience in an international B2C environment is a plus.

· You have experience with building marketing plans, shareholder value, market share, portfolio mgt, pricing, segmenting,…

· You show strong organizational and project management skills with the ability to work on multiple projects at one time.

· You are data driven, curious, digital savvy and inspired by the understanding of local consumer culture’s diversity in food.

· You play to win, you are customer centered and determined to continuously improve everything we do, daring to challenge boundaries to deliver superior value in products & services, and meaningful innovations.

· You have a passion for food and you aim to understand the technical issues of their creation in collaboration with our R&D department, Technical Advisors and Operations.

· Fluent in English. Other languages are a plus.

· You are willing to travel 20% of your time.