Category Lead

At Fazer, our driving force is the shared commitment to bringing joy and well-being to people through high-quality, innovative, and sustainable offerings. As we set our sights on the future, we're gearing up to be a consumer-centric, truly international FMCG company, focused on significant growth and improved profitability. We invite you to join us on this exciting journey as we elevate our brands and create meaningful experiences for our consumers and customers.

Be part of our growth journey and join us as    

Category Lead

We’re looking for a Category Lead to join our Consumer Unit Finland & Baltics, focusing on driving our business growth in Finland.

As a Category Lead, you will be responsible for setting, executing and delivering business objectives for Fazer’s Lifestyle Food (FLF) Business (Cereals, Plant based drinks and Smoothies) and for Fazer Confectionary (FC) Biscuits & Crisps Business.  You will secure strategic and customized category sales plans and growth initiatives based on customer and shopper insights, ensuring category growth for our customers and sustainable development for FLF and FC brands.

Key responsibilities include: 

• Owning Go to Market process for FLF and FC Biscuits & Crisps categories in CU Finland. Creating compelling trade stories and presentations to effectively communicate our value proposition for Finnish customers.
• Collecting and analysing market data to identify key trends and consumer preferences, ensuring category growth for our customers and healthy and sustainable development for FLF & FC brands and business in Finland. You will participate to customer meetings as a category expert and work closely with Finnish retailers to understand their needs and category growth opportunities.
• Guiding Commercial strategies process for defined categories: setting listing and distribution targets, providing supporting arguments, and conducting follow-up activities.
• Facilitating collaboration between Business Units (BU) and Customer Units (CU) to develop innovative concepts and business cases, address gaps in the portfolio, and support Key Account Managers (KAM) and demand planners in defining accurate mid-term forecasts.
• Ensuring smooth and focused dialogues between Functional Corporate Business Units and CU Finland & Baltics.
• Creating targeted sales plans and growth initiatives based on customer and shopper insights. Customizing the product portfolio and offering to meet market and customer needs.
• Represent CU Finland & Baltics in internal gate process (i.e. innovation pipeline) to secure an optimal portfolio, obtaining necessary approvals and business targets for each novelty.

You will directly report to Director, Category & Marketing Activation CU Finland & Baltics, and you will have a dotted line to the VP of Commercial Excellence, with whom you will work closely exchanging functional expertise and best practices from our other consumer units Sweden and International. You will be part of CU Finland and Baltics Management Team. This is permanent position, located in our office in Vantaa where we work mainly on-site.

Why choose Fazer? 

It starts with the people. You'll be working in a supportive and welcoming environment, surrounded by colleagues who will inspire you to be your best. You have a unique opportunity to help build our iconic brands and customer engagement and further develop our new growth strategy. We offer you a best-in-class opportunity to make an impact to Finnish and international FMCG scene and develop your capabilities in leading international company. Fazer community will give you full support on your way to achieve the set targets. With us you and your work matter. We’re passionate about what we do and passionate about finding the right fit to join us!

What do we hope you bring to the team? 

We seek someone who can provide data-driven insights to implement sales strategies globally. Your collaboration with teams and clear communication will turn strategies into actions. You have strong business acumen, proven success in delivering results, and proficiency in sales strategy development. Strong analytical, financial skills, and a data-driven mindset are essential. Outstanding influencing and collaboration skills are required.

We expect you to have:

• Minimum 8 years of experience from category or product management and KAM / Sales management roles
• Master’s degree in economics or equivalent
• Proven track record on successfully managing a complex matrix organization role.
• Experience from FMCG in Finland, preferably from food industry
• Experience from international brands and companies
• Knowledge to Customer POS data tools and shopper-insight understanding are advantages
• Fluent in Finnish and English language

Apply now and join a team that creates meaningful moments. 

Apply for the position no later than Tuesday 10th of February.

If you need further details, please reach out to Pekka Usmi, Director of Category & Marketing Activation at +358401619660. He’ll be available for calls on Tuesday, January 27th 15–16; Friday, January 30th 14:30–15:30; Monday, February 2nd 9:00–10:00; or Tuesday, February 3rd 15–16.

Fazer, The Food Experience Company, enables people to enjoy the best moments of their day. Our mission, Food with a purpose, builds on our strong more than 130-year heritage, consumer first approach and innovations to create the sustainable food solutions of the future. With our dedicated team of approximately 5,000 professionals, we focus on fast-moving consumer goods and our direct-to-consumer business in Northern Europe, and beyond with exports to more than 40 countries. Fazer’s operations comply with its Code of Conduct that is based on the Group’s values and the UN Global Compact. In 2024, Fazer Group had net sales of 1,200 million euros. 

Northern Magic. Made Real.