Customer Category Manager - Value Retailers/Discounters (VCC), Europe

As a Customer Category Manager, you play a key role in shaping and delivering category strategies for Value Retailers / Discounters (VCC) in Europe at the heart of commercial performance and in-store execution.

Within a European Hub environment, you act as a strategic bridge between Marketing, Sales and Finance, translating shopper and category insights into winning assortments, visibility plans and activations for key European Value Retailers / Discounters (VCC).

This role combines strategic thinking, strong analytical capabilities and hands-on business impact, in a dynamic, international and collaborative environment.

What you’ll deliver

• Build and embed the Value Retailers / Discounters (VCC) category management set-up from scratch, including ways of working, templates/toolkits, performance cadence, and category routines with Sales and Marketing.
• Deliver a winning assortment and pack/price architecture tailored to discounter dynamics, improving shelf productivity, availability and rotation.
• Shape shopper and in-store activation plans that drive incremental volume with clear ROI and trade spend efficiency.
• Present clear recommendations in performance reviews and planning moments, with high visibility to senior and executive stakeholders.

Role scope

This role reports into the Senior KAM Value Retailers Europe and partners closely on customer planning and execution. The Customer Category Manager leads category and shopper recommendations for Value Retailers / Discounters (VCC), while the Senior KAM owns customer negotiations, commercial agreements and P&L accountability.

In this role, you directly contribute to building Value Retailers / Discounters (VCC) from the ground up, accelerating category growth, customer performance and execution excellence with high visibility to senior and executive management.

• Lead the category/portfolio strategy for Value Retailers / Discounters (VCC), tailored to value/hard-discount dynamics such as EDLP environments, sharp price points, and limited space, and aligned with brand priorities and customer needs.
• Build strong shopper and category recommendations across assortments, pack/price architecture and shelf efficiency to win at the point of sale.
• Define recommendations for merchandising, visibility and activation mechanics, translating strategy into executable in-store plans.
• Co-create Joint Business Plans (JBPs) with the Senior KAM by providing category targets, key growth levers such as distribution and availability, shelf productivity, promo efficiency, rotation, and recommended activation plans.
• Track and analyse category performance including sell-in, sell-out, volume, rotation, market share, distribution, and availability, and translate insights into clear recommendations and action plans, including price/promo learnings where relevant.
• Act as the Value Retailers / Discounters (VCC) category expert for internal stakeholders across Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Supply Chain, ensuring fast alignment on portfolio choices, cost-to-serve, forecast assumptions and execution readiness.
• Track performance and measure ROI and efficiency of commercial investments, including trade spend and activation mechanics, to continuously optimise plans through a test-and-learn approach.

You are a Coty fit

You are business-driven, data-oriented and impact-focused, and you enjoy working in an international, fast-paced and constantly evolving environment. Autonomous in your day-to-day work, you also value teamwork and cross-functional collaboration.

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in Marketing, Business, Commerce or related field.
• Proven experience in Category Management, Customer Marketing or Trade Marketing.
• Experience working with value retailers / discounters and building channel-specific plans such as shopper, assortment and activation plans is a strong plus.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to translate data into strategic recommendations.
• Comfortable working in customer-facing and commercial environments.
• Strong communication skills and ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders.
• Structured, proactive and solution-oriented mindset.
• Fluent English required in a Hub / international environment.
• International or Hub experience is a plus.

What we offer

• Protection & Financial Security: Insurance coverage, pension plan, bonuses, mobility and allowances.
• Health & Well-Being: Medical support, parental and care leave, wellbeing resources.
• Work-Life Balance: Omni-Work model, flexible hours, generous leave options.
• Workplace Experience & Perks: Modern workspace, tools and equipment, onsite perks, product discounts.
• Coty’s global omni-working policy provides the option to work up to 50% of your month remotely, empowering you to perform at your best while balancing what matters most.

Ready to build the future of beauty in Value Retailers / Discounters (VCC)?

If you want to shape category performance, partner closely with customers and set up a new, high-visibility channel journey from scratch within a European Hub, we would love to meet you.