Vice President of Merchandising and Category Management

Vice President of Merchandising and Category Management

Department: Analytic Support 105604

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Sterling Heights

Reporting To: Brian Anderson

Backed by a tireless commitment to high quality, innovative culinary offerings and unparalleled client and guest services, Continental consistently ranks among the top contract dining and refreshment providers in the nation according to Food Management Magazine, the industry’s source for food service news and trends.

Delight our guest. Every meal. Every day.

Our Core Values

Exceptional – We recruit and retain phenomenal people who consistently go the extra mile to deliver results that lead the industry.

Hospitality – We are tirelessly committed to providing the highest quality food, beverages, and service by anticipating our guests’ needs so they can count on memorable experiences every time.

Collaboration – We prioritize working together with a shared vision and effective & transparent communication, we unite as one team to achieve remarkable experiences.

Responsibility – we hold ourselves accountable to be there for our team and clients, to deliver what we say we will, when we say we will and check in on progress along the way.

Innovation – We are forward-thinkers always looking for new processes, technologies, and techniques to increase efficiencies and scalability to improve our services.

The Vice President of Merchandising and Category Management is the enterprise leader responsible for building and executing the merchandising, category, assortment, and pricing strategies that drive same store sales, protect gross margin, and strengthen the guest experience across Refreshment Services Group channels. This role owns the operating model that connects category strategy to field execution, ensuring the right products are offered, placed, priced, promoted, replenished, and measured consistently across regions and lines of business.

This leader will establish category-specific margin and performance targets, create clear decision rights, and lead disciplined performance rhythms with Finance, Procurement, Operations, Sales, and Marketing. The role requires a commercially minded operator who can translate market, cost, customer, and item-level performance insights into timely decisions that improve revenue, product mix, front-end margin, waste, rebate value, and long-term profitability.

• Develop and lead the enterprise merchandising strategy across vending, markets, office coffee, and adjacent RSG channels
• Create a consistent approach to assortment, menu architecture, product placement, planograms, resets, seasonal programs, and local market relevance.
• Balance consumer demand, client needs, operational practicality, vendor programs, and financial performance when setting the product strategy.
• Build an annual merchandising and promotional calendar that supports traffic, basket growth, product discovery, loyalty engagement, and same store sales.
• Develop and evaluate promotion and loyalty strategies that drive repeat engagement, customer retention, larger basket size, and profitable same store sales growth.
• Ensure merchandising standards are translated into clear field processes, tools, training, and measures of compliance.

• Own category strategy, architecture, and performance standards, including category roles, product mix, SKU productivity, space allocation, and lifecycle decisions.
• Lead category managers in developing item-level and category-level plans based on sales velocity, margin, cost trends, waste, stockouts, customer preferences, and market dynamics.
• Esta…