Kepak Category Management Higher Apprenticeship - England

Kepak Category Management Higher Apprenticeship

Kepak is one of Europe’s leading food companies with manufacturing sites across Ireland and the UK. Kepak’s vision is to be a successful, sustainable, future ready Food Business with differentiation at its core, that is a great place to work. This vision is underpinned by our values of Responsibility, Ambition, Passion for Food & Teamwork.

At Kepak Group, Category sits withing our Insight, Innovation & Marketing (IIM) team, the vision for that team is:

·       Be recognised as a key driver of growth, value creation, and differentiation within the Group.

·       To be recognised as a key player in the delivery of divisional growth and performance objectives

·       To be recognised as a team that operates cost effectively with pace.

·       To bring the lens of consumer, customer, and future trends into decision-making

·       To be passionate about operating to or beyond industry best practice standards

·       To be recognised as an excellent place for career development.

Role Purpose

Our Category Apprenticeships are designed to give our apprentices a great start to their careers by teaching them the essential skills, knowledge, and behaviours, as well as real job experience, needed to succeed, specifically within our sales and commercial teams. you will work closely with the Category Manager to analyse data, create actionable insights, and support the delivery of category plans.

Key Responsibilities

• Data Analysis: Gather and analyse data from sources such as Nielsen, Kantar, IGD, store visits, and others to identify key trends, challenges, and opportunities.
• Updates: Provide regular updates on consumer behaviour, category performance, and competitor activity.
• Presenting: Present findings in a clear and engaging manner, ensuring the message is understood and acted upon.
• Category Reporting: Update and administration of regular reports and dashboards to track category performance. share insights with internal teams and retail partners.
• Retailer Support: Assist the Category Manager in preparing presentations and insights for retailer meetings.
• Range Reviews: Support new range launches, conduct store visits, perform gap-analysis, and review post- change performance.
• Market Research: Stay updated on category, consumer, and market trends; providing relevant insights to the team.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Working cross functionally with Innovation, Sales and Marketing to support the team.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Support internal teams and external agencies with creative projects such as point-of-sale design, insight videos, and PowerPoint decks. Assist with internal stakeholder communication and trade exhibitions.
• Ad Hoc Projects: Support the Category Manager and Senior Category Manager with ad hoc analysis and projects as required.

ROLE DELIVERABLES / KPI’s

Understand the category function and wider Kepak business

Keep reports up to date

Deliver gap analysis every month

Apprenticeship learning

Meet deadlines

Build team relationships

Demonstrate the company values; Responsibility, Ambition, Passion for Food, Teamwork

CRITICAL INTERFACES:

Divisional Marketing Teams: Collaborating with Divisional Marketing teams to develop and drive category strategies that support divisional goals.

Commercial Teams: Working in close partnership to build winning category strategy and growth plans for retailers.

Innovation / NPD Teams: Providing insights to inform the future product pipeline.

External Agencies: Liaising with external agencies to produce creative projects such as point-of-sale design, insight videos, and PowerPoint decks.

Key Competencies

•Customer Orientation: Ability to understand and respond to customer needs.

•Commercial Acumen: Understanding our market drivers, profitability, and competitive forces within the industry.

•Negotiation Skills: Supporting the closing of deals that are beneficial for both the customer and the company.

•Analytical Thinking: Ability to analyse data and market conditions to make informed decisions.

•Resilience: Handle a changing workload and frequent travel with a positive attitude, learning from failures and continuously improving.

•Project Management: Effective in planning, executing, and overseeing projects to successful completion.

Other Role Information

•Travel: This role requires travel to various company locations and events, offering a dynamic and varied work environment.

•Career Path: Apprentices are expected to progress into Category executive role, with opportunities to advance to more senior roles as their career progresses, based on performance.

Our Apprenticeship programme allows dynamic, motivated, hardworking, and passionate people, an opportunity start their career with one of Ireland & UKs leading food businesses. The programme lasts 2 years.

You can expect:

• To be fully immersed into our Culture from day 1, working alongside key industry experts and Kepak leaders
• Gain an in depth understanding of our brands and products, and our relationships with customers and consumers
• To learn key aspects of our business, whilst you develop your skills and knowledge
• The opportunity to develop personally and professionally through exposure to key projects, tasks and development activities that challenge you, all supported by a detailed learner journey and training plan
• A dedicated mentor and development program to support you both on the programme and into a role that best fits your skills

Start date: September 7th 2026

Starting Salary - £18,000 with an up to £2,000 increase at the start of Year 2 to £20,000

Read more about our programme and hear from some of our Apprentices:https://kepak.com/careers/apprenticeships/

Requirements

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for hardworking and ambitious Apprentices, who want to learn and grow in a challenging and fast paced environment, by performing real roles.

You must be mobile and willing to travel throughout the programme to undertake development activities at any of our sites in the UK and Ireland.

• Minimum Requirements: GCSEs in English and Maths at Grades 9-4 (or equivalent)
• Ideally studying or qualified in a related subject (e.g. business, social sciences, psychology, IT, analysis, or graphics).
• Keen interest in FMCG, retail, or a similar industry (internship or work experience is also valued).
• Can demonstrate a strong work ethic, discipline, ambition, and a growth mindset
• Comfortable working with data and problem-solving; basic experience with Excel, PowerPoint and / or AI platforms. Experience of presentations and making videos is desirable
• Attention to detail with an ability to interpret data effectively.
• Good Communication Skills; confident collaborating with and presenting to internal teams.
• A Team Player who is eager to learn, proactive, and able to contribute to a collaborative team.
• A curious mindset, with a drive to understand what drives consumer behaviour and market trends.
• Working with data securely and in line with GDPR. Working within data analysis rules (e.g. NDAs and data sharing limitations)
• Completes Introduction to Working in Grocery course
• Creative mindset with an interest in marketing and bringing ideas to life in-store.
• An interest in grocery retail and shopper behaviour in the UK and Ireland is desirable but not essential.

We will be looking for alignment with our Core Values:

Responsibility – Ability to work on your own initiative and take accountability for your actions

Ambition – You will have the willingness and confidence to challenge yourself to be the best you can be and be driven to succeed

Passion for Food – this is at the heart of everything we do, you must be passionate about every aspect of our industry

Teamwork – ability to build positive relationships quickly with people from all cultures and career stages is pivotal

Benefits

• Employee Discount Scheme
• Service-Related Annual Leave
• Discounted Health Insurance
• Educational Assistance/ L&D
• Discounted Meat Products
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee assistance programme