Royal Zeelandia Group

Over de opdrachtgever

Royal Zeelandia Group is a global, family-owned leader in bakery ingredients with a strong heritage in pastry and bread. Founded in 1900 and headquartered in the Netherlands, the company operates in over 30 countries and serves customers in nearly 100 markets. With 3,200 employees worldwide, Zeelandia combines deep technical expertise with a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Zeelandia lives their values: Inventive, Courageous, Ambitious, Involved and Responsible.

The organisation is currently undergoing a strategic shift from a historically decentralised structure towards a more unified, datau2011driven and centrally steered marketing, portfolio and NPD model. This transition is essential to strengthen competitiveness, accelerate innovation and build a more mature, scalable commercial organisation across Europe and beyond.

Functieomschrijving

This Global Category Manager holds endu2011tou2011end responsibility for the strategic direction, performance and development of the pastry category across Europe, with a growing outlook towards Asia. Reporting to the Group Marketing/R&D Director and working closely with the Global Management Team (GMT), R&D/NPD and local Operating Companies, the role is crucial in shaping Zeelandiau2019s future pastry portfolio.

The core of the assignment is to define clear strategic choices for pastry product groups. You will lead central portfolio management, ensure alignment across countries and drive the transition towards a more standardised, datau2011driven and valueu2011focused way of working.The role involves managing and developing 3 Global Product Leads, strengthening NPD governance (including stageu2011gate processes), and ensuring that innovation themes and product decisions are aligned with both market needs and technical feasibility. You will also play a key role in the pricing governance, value selling and performance management.

The Global Category Manager builds bridges between central functions and local markets, accelerates change in countries with varying levels of maturity, and ensures buyu2011in from Managing Directors of the operating companies, commercial teams and R&D. The role requires strong influencing skills and the ability to balance entrepreneurial freedom with central steering.

Wie zoeken we

For this position we seek a senior B2B marketing and portfolio leader with approximately 10u201315 years of experience in category management, product management or strategic marketing. A background in food ingredients or bakery is preferred but not strictly required, experience in international matrix environments is essential.

The ideal candidate combines strong strategic portfolio and category management capabilities with the ability to generate datau2011driven market insights. Experience in leading product management teams and guiding new product development through stageu2011gate processes is required, while also making pricing, valueu2011selling, and P&Lu2011focused decisions.

We look for a seasoned professional with strong influencing and communication skills. Someone who can build trust amongst various stakeholders and communicate complex decisions through compelling storytelling combined with facts and figures. A diplomatic, consistent and result oriented mindset and approach are key.

Wat wij bieden

An exciting opportunity to play a central role in the strategic transformation of a leading global bakery ingredients company. The role offers significant visibility at GMT level, international scope and the chance to shape the future of a core global category.

You will work closely with a diverse, committed team and contribute directly to building a more mature, datau2011driven and innovationu2011focused organisation - with future opportunities to expand your impact beyond Europe.

Zeelandia provides attractive primary and secondary employment benefits, as well as a hybrid work arrangement, offering a balance between working at the office in Zierikzee and from a home office.